How to Make a Felt Sugar Skull
Use our FREE felt sugar skull pattern to make these adorable calaveras! These colourful Day of the Dead felt skulls are super festive and really easy to make.
Cost: $2
Equipment
Materials
- Free Printable Felt Sugar Skull Pattern
- Felt (2 colours and black)
- Embroidery floss (several colours and black)
- Seed beads
- Polyester fiber fill
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!
Video
Notes
Looking for more fun crafts? Here's a few of our favourites:
Paper Plate Day of the Dead Mask
How to Make a Pinata
Pressed Flower Rocks