Monday, September 26, 2011

Jellyfish Tutorial

Materials:

small pieces of felt in white and pink (or the jellyfishy colors of your choice)
a bit of stuffing
a five(ish) inch piece of ribbon for hanging

Tools:

sharp scissors
pins
pencil
sewing machine or needle and thread (in pink and white)
printed templates (below)


Cut out paper templates; pin to felt and cut the number of shapes indicated by the template. (For the teardrop shapes, I traced the templates, since pinning such small bits is hard.)
Position the white teardrop pieces on the pink bell pieces and fasten with a whip stitch or running stitch if you're sewing your jellyfish by hand. Alternately, you can attach with your machine.
To create the tentacles, cut each felt circle (3) in a spiral beginning at the outside and working your way in to the center.

Position the top of each tentacle between the two lower-body pieces, so each aligns with one of the three lobes. Pin and sew the two lower-body pieces together, making sure to catch all three tentacles between them. (Again, you can use a whip stitch or running stitch or sew the pieces together on your machine.)
Insert the lower body at the center bottom between the two bell pieces and pin. Beginning near the top, sew the two bell pieces together, securing the lower body between them and leaving an opening (as marked on the template) at the top for stuffing.
Stuff!
As you sew closed the opening, catch the ends of the ribbon, folded in half, in your stitches, and voila!
I've made one jellyfish on my sewing machine and one by hand--the machine version is neater and quicker, but you can make the hand sewn version while you stream episodes of Felicity on Netflix, so it's a tough call.

(If you enlarge or shrink the pattern pieces, you can make these in many sizes--attach them to a wooden hoop and you'd have a lovely mobile. The pattern pieces could also easily be used to create jellyfish applique. Have fun!)

24 comments:

abbyglassenberg said...

Great tutorial! I love your illustration, too!

Melissa Crowe said...

Thanks, Abby! My only worry is that those jellyfish were hard to photograph. Slippery buggers. ;-)

jeanne e. said...

super cute! thanks for sharing. :)

dini capungmungil said...

love it... you must write a book melissa :)

Kitten's Lost Her Mittens said...

Thanks for sharing the tutorial! I can't wait to try it!!

Ash said...

Oh those are too cute! I will have to whip some of those up for some friends! Thanks for sharing!

Craft Bunker said...

Oh how much do I love this! i'm doing a blog post about how to make jelly-fish lanterns atm, maybe I should do a 'look at all these cool jelly-fish things' as well! Love your work!

amy said...

Thanks for sharing! My daughter loves jellyfish. :)

Amish Stories said...

Just passing through and thought id say hello. Richard from Amish Stories.

Skooks said...

Felicity!!! :) Sorry . . . I just vaguely love that show.

I love those jellyfish. So cute and fun.

Erin said...

I love luv luve love love! jellyfish! so great that I found this. I'm totally going to make these as presents for people now.

myrtle said...

WoW! that was really great.. thanks for the tutorial that was helpful.
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thefrabjousversipel said...

These are adorable! My son would love a hundred of these hung from his ceiling (had I but felt enough and time).

Melissa Crowe said...

Thanks, all--and you're welcome!

"But felt enough and time" should be the name of my blog! :-)

Bee Crafty said...

This is just too cute! Well done

Senhorita Giz Pastel- Miss Rough Pastel said...

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janmadeit said...

Jellyfish totally creep me out but these are really cute!
I may have to make a couple, I don't think these will give me nightmares. :-) Thanks for sharing.
Jan

Gemma Day said...

Love these and will defo be making one soon.
Thanks for sharing - you have a lovely blog

x

twiginwater said...

Thanks for sharing. You have motivated me to make these.

Melissa Crowe said...

Hooray! Have fun!

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Sofia, Sónia e Sara Cunha said...

So cute. Love Love Love your arts and crafts.

Priscila B. said...

Amazing tutorial!!!!! :D