St. Patty's Day Project Part 1

Four Leaf Felt Clovers:

Here is what you will need:

Green felt squares- I bought mine 4 for $1 at the fabric store. 

Scissors- the sharper the better!

Ruler

Sharpie

Needle and thread

 You will take one of the squares and measure out about 1.25 inches and draw a line.  I cheated and just put the ruler against the edge of the square and used it's width as the measurement.  You will continue to make lines across the whole square.

 Then you will mark every inch along the 1st line and then skip every other line and repeat.

Here is what my fist two lines looked like:  You only need the inches marked in every other line as you will find out.

Here is what your square should look like with all the lines.  I didn't mark the inch lines all the way through since all you need is to keep the ends of the clover leaves the same size.

 Then you will cut them out two lines at a time as shown:

 

Then you will fold it in half: 

Then start cutting out a scalloped edge using the lines as your guides. 

 

Here is what it will look like:

 

Here's what it will look like unfolded:  

Then you will cut them into individual leaves: 

Some how I missed getting pictures of the stems, but I drew a line on my felt that was 1.25 inches wide (the same as the leaves) and then cut it into stems about .25" wide.  The one in the picture below is a bit too wide, I ended up cutting that one in half and it was perfect.

The picture above shows the basic way you will sew them together.  You could do it that way and then pull your thread tight after adding the stem, but I found an easier way!  If you fold the leaves in half and stack them all together, you can run the needle through them all at the same time:

Much easier.  I also found that if you put the stem in the middle of the leaves, they turn out looking better.  I ran the needle through two times right down the center, then loosened it slightly before tying the thread.  After you tie it off, gently tug the leaves apart and you will end up with a perfect four leaf clover!

I made approximately 21 of these per felt square and found that was plenty in order to make a wreath and have some leftover to decorate with!  You can add them to clothes, headbands, tie one to a candle, stick a few on a frame, or use them to make a wreath as I will in the next post!