DIY Cloud + Lightning Brooch

The rain is back here in Portland, and I am LOVING the Fall weather. We've even had some thunderstorms so far this year (which is very rare here). It inspired me to make this cute little felt brooch (a perfect craft for a rainy afternoon!).

To make this felt brooch you will need:

Grey felt
Yellow felt
scissors
needle
pin back
cotton ball or small amount of polyester fiber fill
thread (colors of your choice)
cloud template (I used the one from my rain cloud brooch)
fabric glue or hot glue (optional)

I started by cutting out my shapes and choosing some thread. I made some templates out of index cards, you can use my cloud template or easily make your own. I free handed my lightning bolt pattern onto my felt (its basically a zigzag line that comes to a point). I like a really bright yellow with matching thread for the contrast it gave my final project, you can definitely use lighter colors if you prefer.

I wanted my lightning bolt to have a little more heft so I doubled the layers and used a blanket stitch to sew them together. Blanket stitch is great because it seems to smooth out the edges of your final shape (which is really useful with felt pieces that can be quite fuzzy around the edge).

Next, I placed my lightning bolt onto one of my clouds and moved it around to decide just where I wanted it placed. Once you decide, you can sandwich the other piece of grey felt on top and get your needle threaded to sew your clouds together.

I decided to give my cloud a silver lining (ha! I do in fact, love this weather!) and thought a backstitch would look cute all the way around. You can do another blanket stitch, or get even fancier with something else if you like, I'm not the boss of you and your crafts :)

Once you get a little over halfway around your cloud, I usually start adding some stuffing in to make sure I can get all the way into the ends. For this I just used a cotton ball, but if you have polyester fiber fill laying around you can use that instead. Continue sewing and adding cotton until your cloud is fully stuffed and you have stitched the entire way around. Tie off your string and weave in the ends if you feel it necessary. Finish your brooch by attaching a pin back onto the back of your cloud (you can use fabric glue, hot glue, or stitch the pin back onto the back of your cloud).

Above you can see a detail of my silver lining stitching. I used a metallic thread because I like things that are sparkly, but you could easily substitute a plain grey or silver colored thread without the sparkly filaments.

Tada! Has the weather inspired you to make anything super cute lately? I'd love to hear about it!

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Silver Metallic thread for this post was provided by Kreinik Threads. I was not compensated in any other way for this post and all opinions are my own.

Rain Cloud Brooch Pattern

I was looking through some of my old projects the other day and decided that this little guy really didn't get the love he deserved. Sure, it's a rain cloud, but it's a cute little rain cloud, right? These are super easy to make, can be customized with lots of different things, and if you don't like hand sewing, just bust out the glue gun!


Here is my cloud pattern if you don't feel like drawing out your own:

The final measurements of my cloud, when stuffed are about 2.5" wide and 1.5" tall.

To make your own cute little rain cloud brooch, cut out 2 of your cloud pattern from the felt color of your choice and sew or glue them together on the edges, filling with a little batting or a cotton ball so it's squishy and soft. I used silver jewelry chain to make my "rain" and added a little blue glass bead to one of my chains. I used a little hot glue to secure the chains in place on the inside of my felt cloud pieces.

Then, I hand stitched a pin back to the back of my cloud to secure it. You could use hot glue, or some other kind of glue if you'd prefer, but not many glues work well for both fabric and metal, so you may find it loosens over time and needs to be glued back on at some point. A few stitches really help make a permanent connection, and most pin backs you will find in the craft stores have a few holes in them to make sewing them onto fabrics pretty easy.

Rain Cloud Brooch

Today was actually a very nice day in Portland, sun and everything. So, I guess I must have missed the rain, as I decided to make this cute little rain cloud brooch. I even added a little light blue glass bead rain drop, though I think the silver chain looks nice on its own as rain. A little stuffing, a little glue and a pin back and voila! a nice little rain cloud, only this one won't leave you all wet and gloomy.