Witchy Brooches

Hey ghouls and creeps! With Halloween just around the corner, the crunch is on to start making those Halloween crafts you’ve been eyeing. It’s hard to believe Halloween is just two weeks away! Where did October go?!? I’ve been wanting to make some festive brooches to show my Halloween spirit, and thought why not make them with some witch icons? Another aspect of this project I really enjoyed is you get to dabble a little in a few different mediums/techniques. Fabric painting, hand embroidery, and applique are all techniques used in the making of these. So if you’ve been wanting to practice up in any of these areas, these are great for playing around, but not getting overwhelmed.

The witch brooch project is pretty straight forward, but the embellishment steps persuaded me to ultimately rate these moderate. If you are intimidated by the embroidery or the paint application steps, you can opt to leave these out of your brooch design.

Step 1: Cutting Felt Pieces: Download the PDF below and follow instructions written on the template for which pieces to cut from each color of felt. A piece placement key has also been included so that you know where to iron pieces for brooch fronts. Before cutting out applique pieces, iron on Heat n’ Bond to the backside of the felt. This way both the felt and adhesive are cut simultaneously.

Step 2: Assembling Brooch Fronts: Peel off the paper backing of the Heat n’ Bond on all pieces before ironing in place. Use guides on the PDF template for piece placement.

When ironing, lay out all pieces on each front making sure that they are centered. Check iron setting, you don’t want above wool, before ironing appliques in place.

Place iron right on top of brooch front, be careful to not move the iron back and forth because this may move the pieces around. Lift iron periodically to check progress until pieces have adhered to brooch front. Repeat these steps until all brooch fronts have been ironed.

Step 3: Brooch Embellishment: Pin brooch fronts to a scrap of muslin that fits your selected embroidery hoop.

Use embroidery guide provided below to transfer marks using transfer/chalk paper, or as a stencil for tracing.

Don’t be afraid to freehand your embroidery, you can always remove stitches! Place muslin with brooch fronts on embroidery hoop, centering brooches inside ring.

Use embroidery guide for floss colors. I used a backstitch to outline each shape, and then filled in the shapes with a satin stitch.

After finishing the embroidery, remove the muslin from the hoop. Apply fabric paint using the guide from above. Once applied, allow to dry for at least four hours.

Cut brooch fronts from muslin, by cutting muslin down to embroidered areas.

Step 4: Assembling Brooches: Cut three circles with a 2 1/4” diameter from sketchbook paper or tag board. Hot glue paper circles to the center back of each brooch front.

Fold-over flaps around paper edge and glue in place. Pro-tip: use a pen, pencil, or some other utensil to help fold over flaps in the glue so you don’t burn your fingers! Ouch!

Glue brooch back over flaps, making sure to glue edges securely.

Glue bar pin to the center back of your brooch.

You’re finished! Now you can show your enthusiasm for the holiday/season with these witch icon brooches! Wear them for Halloween or all year long!

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Ready for your next project? Here are some tutorials on the blog I think you’ll like! Frame Flip tutorial: https://britnijade.com/frame-flip/, Macrame Wall Hanging: https://britnijade.com/macrame-wall-hanging-w-bones/, or the Spider Web Macrame: https://britnijade.com/spider-web-macrame/. Enjoy!