DIY Simple Felt Four-Leafed Clover Shamrock Pin

I kind of feel a little bit silly running around town on Saint Patrick’s Day all decked out in a green dress or top or whatever. I know, I know there are people that totally rock fedoras and feather boas but I think that happens a weensy bit later than I tend to be out these days!

I guess I feel like I’m too old to be wearing green so as to not get pinched. But I like the whole holiday and all of that jazz and I want to do something festive. So today I busted out my felt collection and embroidery floss and made myself a sweet, simple shamrock (or four-leaf clover) pin to rock around town come March 17!

For this project you will need:

• Green felt in 2 shades
• Green embroidery floss/needle
• Thick paper (cardstock works well)
• Pen/marker/pencil
• Scissors

Grab a piece of thicker paper and draw a row of scallops. Try to make them all the same size, between 3/4 inch – 1 inch wide.

Take your 2 best scallops side by side and trim them into a shape like above. Perfection is not necessary. See how my pattern is a little fuller on the right than the left? No big. This is going to be the pattern for our clover leaves.

Here’s a quick tip… a little bit of adhesive on the back of the pattern will help you keep it in place when cutting out the felt. You can also pin the pattern onto the felt but then you run into the problem of it kind of dimpling and it’s a mess I’d just rather avoid these days. My favorite to use is Aleene’s Tacky Sheets. Trim a small piece away from the larger sheet. Peel the backing from one side and stick to the pattern. Pull away the remaining protective backing and stick it to a shirt or your finger or something a few times to lessen the amount of sticky going on. This stuff is really good and we need only a temporary stick.

Trim around your pattern with scissors sharp enough to cleanly cut the felt.

Trace your first pattern onto the cardstock. Duplicate the shape, but smaller inside of pattern tracing. Trim and you have your pattern for your inner, smaller leaves. Trim those pieces out of a different shade of green for a nice contrast.

Take one larger and one smaller leaf and place together with the bottoms flush. Fold in the middle as you see above.

Pinch the sides to meet with the bend along the middle.

Using a sharp needle run a few strands of embroidery floss through the leaf going through the bends and folds you created, tacking them in place.

Repeat for all of the leaves. It does matter that they are all done exactly the same. If you have a leaf facing a different direction you’ll need to remove and resew it.

Start to pull the string and the shamrock shape will start to take hold.

Turn your shamrock over and connect the end leaves together with a quick stitch.

Continue to pull the thread tightly, taking care to keep the shape as symmetrical as possible.

Create a few stitches on the backside to hold the shamrock together.

Use the remaining thread to attach a bar pin to the backside of the shamrock to make a sweet little brooch!

This is a seriously inexpensive project that will keep you in the green!

Allison

A crafter since her earliest years, Allison spends a little time every day making something. She crafts, sews, paints, glues things onto other things, and is a firm believer that a life spent creating is a life worth living. Visit Allison’s blog, Dream {a Little} BIGGER.