Have fun making a felt sugar skull! Use felt, embroidery floss, and beads (along with our free, printable pattern!) to create these vibrant felt decorations.
Embrace the traditions of Día de Muertos and honour your loved ones who have passed by making a felt Day of the Dead skull in their favourite colours. These embroidered calaveras are an easy sewing craft for beginners, and they’re so fun to make!
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How to Make a Felt Sugar Skull
Materials:
- Free Printable Felt Sugar Skull Pattern
- Felt (2 colours and black)
- Embroidery floss (several colours and black)
- Seed beads
- Polyester fiber fill
Equipment:
Watch the step-by-step video tutorial:
Instructions:
Step 1: Find what you need
- Gather your supplies and materials.
Step 2: Cut out the template pieces from felt
- Print our felt sugar skull template (find the pattern link in the materials list above!) and cut out the pieces.
- Hold the pattern piece on top of the felt to cut it out.Use blue (or another colour) felt for the 2 skull pieces and a complementary colour for the decorations. Then use black felt for the eyes and nose.You can also pin the pattern to the felt to make it easier to cut, or trace around the template with chalk or a gel pen.
Step 3: Attach the eyes, nose, and cheeks
- Grab one of the eyes and one of the skull shapes. Set the eye in place and use a contrasting colour of embroidery thread (we used pink) to sew it on.To do this, bring your thread up through both layers of felt, about 1/8 inch in from the edge of the eye. Then bring the needle back down through the skull, just outside the eye. Repeat all the way around.
- Attach the second eye and the nose, using a different colour of thread for each.
- Next, sew on your decoration pieces. We chose the circles and placed them as cheeks.There are 3 other decoration choices available on the printable pattern!
Step 4: Sew on the mouth
- Use all 6 strands of black embroidery floss to make the skull’s mouth. Make 5 vertical lines across the bottom of the skull, about 1/2 inch tall.
- Then make horizontal backstitches across the center of the vertical lines to form the teeth.
Step 5: Add beads and embroider on other decorations
- Next, attach beads wherever you’d like them to sit. Begin by bringing your threaded needle up from the bottom of the skull.Place a seed bead on the needle and then bring the needle back down through the felt, close to your original entry point.
- Repeat, attaching more beads and spacing them evenly across the top of the skull. (Or wherever you’d like them to sit.)
- You can also use embroidery floss to sew different designs, filling in any blank spaces.Here we made symmetrical angled lines going up to the beads from the center of the forehead.
Step 6: Sew together both layers of the skull
- Once you’re happy with the skull design, place the second skull piece under the decorated one.
- Connect the two sides of the skull with a blanket stitch.To do this, bring your needle up through both layers of felt, about 1/8 inch from the edge. Pull the thread almost all the way through and tie the front thread to the tail in a double knot.Tuck the excess thread between the two layers of felt and bring your needle back up about 1/4 inch away from the last stitch.Before you pull your needle all the way through, wrap the thread around the needle.
- Repeat the blanket stitch around the edge of the skull, stopping when there’s about 2 inches left.
Step 7: Stuff the skull and close it off
- Add stuffing to the skull, until it’s evenly and firmly stuffed.
- Close off the skull, continuing the blanket stitch. Finish off your thread by going through the last stitch 3 times.Then push the needle down at the seam and bring it up through the top layer of felt. Cut off the excess thread and pinch the felt to hide the thread inside.
- Your felt sugar skull is complete!
Helpful Tips:
- Remember that Day of the Dead masks are usually symmetrical — or the same on both sides.
- You can also put these felt sugar skulls together with a glue gun or sew them on a sewing machine.
- First sketch out the design for your sugar skull on the paper template before adding the details onto the felt. This makes it easier to see how the final calavera will look.
Get our free printable felt sugar skull pattern:
The link and picture below will take you to our free, printable felt sugar skull pattern! The PDF file will open in a new window. Then simply print the template on 8.5 x 11 (letter size) printer paper.
>>> Felt Sugar Skull Pattern <<<
What size felt sugar skull does this pattern make?
These felt sugar skulls are 3-1/2 inches tall and 2-1/2 inches wide. But you can make them smaller or larger by scaling the pattern before printing!
How else can I decorate my felt sugar skull?
All of our sugar skulls have the same eyes, nose, and mouth, but everything else is different. It’s really fun to create different looks for the calaveras, using the 4 types of felt decorations and different embroidery designs.
Besides seed beads, which we used here, you can use different shapes of beads, sequins, rhinestones, gems, and/or buttons. You can also add pieces of lace, rickrack trim, or even make textured lines and shapes with puffy paint.
You can also add more embroidery details, like a French knot, a fishbone stitch, or a woven wheel stitch.
There are no rules for how a sugar skull should look, except that they should be symmetrical. So if the left cheek has a decoration, repeat it on the right side. You can play around with this by adding the same shape or design, but in a different colour.
What can I do with my Day of the Dead felt skulls?
These little skull decorations are quite versatile. They’re a cute soft toy on their own, but you can also turn them into keychains, magnets, brooches, or pins.
Attach a thread or ribbon hanger to turn your skull into an ornament. Or they can also be connected into a garland and used as a party decoration. You can even transform these felt Day of the Dead skulls into a statement hair piece by attaching them to a barrette or headband.
Turn them into a scented sachet by added dried flowers or herbs in with the stuffing. And, of course, these skulls make a great addition to an ofrenda (Día de Muertos altar).
Make these bright and bold felt sugar skulls in all different colours and designs! This Day of the Dead craft is a great way to use up small pieces of felt, and these felt skulls also make friendly and fun decorations for Halloween.
Here’s even more felt craft ideas:
Our book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids is loaded with 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!
Where to buy:
You can purchase Low-Mess Crafts for Kids from Amazon, or wherever books are sold:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Books-A-Million | Indiebound | Amazon Canada
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