Flowering Gum felt sewing kit tutorial

Are you ready to start making your Flowering Gum branch? Read through the written instructions in your kit, then take a look at the photos below for extra help. Happy crafting!

On the left hand side are the contents of your kit and on the right hand side are the supplies that you will need to gather to make your project.

Step 1: The felt pieces once cut out will look like this.

Leaves: Step 2

The two sides of the leaves are sewn together with a whip stitch. Notice how the ends (or the stems) of the leaves are left open? This is so we can sew them onto the branch later.

The running stitch vein is stitched with the green Finn embroidery wool. Make sure to still leave the end unsewn!

Gumnuts: Step 3

From left to right:

-Pinning the felt so that the sides meet.

-Stitching down the side but leaving the top of the stem unsewn.

-Pinning the Circle Cap piece onto the end of the gumnut.

Sewing the Circle Cap onto the end of the gumnut using the whip stitch.

Red Blossom Stamens: Step 4

The wrapped Finn wool is tied off securely with a length of thin cotton thread. The tail of the thread is left long.

At the opposite end to where you have tied the threads together, cut through the wool .

Here are my Gumnuts with their matching red stamens. Notice how they differ in size? The largest one on the left doesn’t have a Circle Cap piece as it will have more stamens coming out the end.

Step 5: The tail of the cotton from the red stamen is threaded onto a needle and fed through the gumnut. Pull the stamens into the gumnut and leave the thread hanging. Don’t tie it off just yet.

Here are the finished blossoms with their long threads still hanging through. These threads will be used to secure the gumnuts to the Branch soon. You can give the stamens a little hair-cut at this point.

Branch and Stem: Step 6

Cut your pipe-cleaner down to size and wrap the smaller pieces around the ends of the longer piece. It will look a bit like chicken legs!

Step 7: Wrap the pipe-cleaner with the brown Finn wool. Start at the end of a ‘toe’ and wind upwards.

Winding, winding, winding…..

Don’t worry about the very ends of the ‘toes’ being white as these will be covered by the gumnuts or leaves eventualy.

Assembling: Step 8

This is the best part I think! Laying the pieces out to see where you like the leaves and gum blossoms best. You can take a photo so that you can refer back to it as you sew.

The needle is re-threaded with the tail thread of the Gumnut. The Gumnut is gently pushed onto the end of the pipe cleaner stem and is now sewn firmly onto the end of the stem.

The same technique is used to secure the leaves to the stems. The needle is re-thread with the cotton tail of the leaf and the end of the felt leaf is sewn onto the branch or the end of a pipe cleaner stem.

The finished Flowering Gum Branch.