Several sheets of felt have been laying in my closet since -euhm- forever. I’ve been meaning to make a cute cat (Catootje) with it, but somehow never found the time or inspiration. That is until I spotted a new book about felt plushies, translated from the original Japanese book. The Dutch version (Snoezige Minidiertjes met Vilt) is missing the last couple of felt figures, such as donuts, cookies and houses. But I guess that’s why it’s called “Cute Mini-animals with Felt” that or they were just being lazy.

Last Saturday I spend some time making the cute retro deer you can see above. It’s one of my favorite projects from the book, please read on if you would like to make one yourself ^_^
These crafts also stood out to me:

Chihuahuas dressed up as fruits, très kawaii.

Hedgehogs, flying squirrels and hamsters trashing your kitchen.

And Alpacas, woohoo! The translation is super cheesy, it says something like “tiny woolen balls” except in Dutch it rhymes

The patterns and instructions displayed at the end of the book are quite easy to follow. I’ve got a little experience in sewing, but the projects are also suited for beginners.

Craft a cute felt deer

• You’ll need:
• Felt deer template PDF
• Felt (half a sheet of white, pink and brown)
• Embroidery thread or strong fine cotton thread (white, pink, brown and black)
• Needle
• Pair of scissors
• Glue
• Safety eye (can also be replaced with black felt or a black sequin)
• Filling

1. Start by tracing the patterns, or simply cut them out from the print. I don’t have a printer at hand to test, so the pattern could be a tad larger than the one from the book.

2. Turn the pattern around and trace it with a colored pencil onto the felt. This way the pencil marks will be on the inside when you attach the parts.

3. Cut out the parts with a sharp pair of scissors and put the tail and ears in place. You can use a little glue on one side to secure them. At this point you can stitch the face onto the body, but I decided to glue it on during step 6.
4. Use the blanket stitch to stitch the body parts together and a regular stitch near the tail and ears. You could start sewing at the end of the right ear and take a break at the left ear to put in the filling.
5. Fill it, use a small pencil to get the filling into his/her legs and behind. Sew together the last part between the ears.

6. The base for your deer is done! Attach the eye to the face and use one fly stitch to embroider the mouth. Now glue on the spots, nose and face and you deer is good to go ❥.

If you attach a piece of ribbon during step 5 the deer can easily be turned into a keychain. Or attach a pin to wear it as a brooch. Still feeling crafty? Have a look at my Buru Buru Dog DIY or the Japanese felt books over at Scribd o(^▽^)o