How to make a blossom fairy

It's a bit early I know but I need to usher in Spring. I need to come out of my hibernating mood and get back into the groove. I want sunny days that will lift the spirits and more than that I want to get out and do some more dyeing. So with that in my mind I've made a couple of blossom fairies to add to some made years ago and I've hung them over the nature table. They look lovely in their pastel colours bobbing about in the draft that comes through the (new) window. If you'd like to make some too here's how. You'll need some stockinette (or an old T shirt will do), felt, some raw fleece (washed ofcourse), pipecleaners, thread and small wooden beads.

 

Firstly you need to cut a square of stockinette about 3"x3" and then wind a small ball of fleece:

Then wrap the stockinette around the ball pulling tight and secure like so (sorry for the bad photo):

Cut out the body using the pattern I'll give at the end of the post and cut a small cross in the centre:

Put the head through this cross and fold over the body/dress. Take a peice of pipecleaner and insert it through the arms so that it protudes at each end. Then cut it leaving about 1/4" too long. Then sew under the arms down to the waist on each side. Sew aroudn the neck too going in and out through the neck to secure the head:

Now the easiest hands to make are just to glue a wooden bead to each end of the protruding pipecleaner but I ran out of small beads so in the above pic I've sewn together a tiny square of stockinette, turned it inside out and slipped it on the pipecleaner. Then I've tied it at the wrist to secure. Fiddly - although it looks nice. Next off find some nice hair and sew it on. I've used some of my plant dyed curls:

Then you may want to give it some sort of crown. I snipped tiny bits off a piece of pink muslin and then threaded it like beads:

Tie this around the fairy's head and secure at intervals and then take the thread and push it out through the crown and use this for hanging the fairy:

 

Here is the new pink one and a yellow one I made years ago. I didn't have nice curls back then so just used some yellow roving that I had left over from felting.

There we are. You can make as many as you want. Hang them from a branch or better still wait until the blossom is really out. Then bring some indoors and hang the fairies off those branches. Have fun.

Oops nearly forgot the pattern:

Comments

[Donna]

Those are lovely! And what a wonderful Root Children scene. Your Nature Table looks great--ours always seems to get so cluttered.

[Simone]

Thanks Simmy. Lovely spring colours certainly lift the spirits. Love the earthy root babies too!

[Jo]

These are lovely, I'm going to make some with my daughter to celebrate Spring

[louise]

ah this is all sounding good! nice tutorial and i love the muslin garland. though i won't be making any spring fairies will i! our root babies are thinking about sleep. i am so not ready to think about autumn. it has been such a mild summer it doesn't seem fair but theres no stopping m. nature now is there! xxx

[Gwyn]

Thank you so much - my friends and I were lamenting jsut yesterday on how hard it is to find good fairies these days!

[HildeC]

They are beautiful! Thank you for making a tutorial and sharing it with us :-)

[Rowan]

These are so pretty! I must save the instructions so that I can make some for Kaitlyn when she gets a bit bigger and knows what fairies are:)

[weirdbunny]

Your faeries are brilliant, I'll definately be making some for my easter tree.

[sarah]

i love making those little fairies there so cute

[AmyDe]

WOW - thank you! My daughter and I are going to make many of these. I've had some naturally dyed wool locks for a while now and THIS is perfect to use them. I'm off to buy the stocking fabric today!

[Nicki]

Thanks for the tute! These are just what our nature table needs. Yours is fab BTW.

[marie-hélène]

Excellent. What a good idea !

[Carmen]

preciosas, estan muy linnndas!!!!

[Kathleen Marie]

How cute and spring does need a big push around here. It is snowing today!

[Amy]

thanks for the tutorial. It is both beautiful and timely.

I linked to you from my blog.
http://snugglebugg.com/sagepixie/?p=165

Love and Laughter,
Amy

[mira]

Those are adorable! What a great idea for spring.

[Fairies And Things]

What an absolutely great project to do w/ the kids!

[JoAnna]

We can't wait to try these!

[Annalisa from Italy]

I love these angels!!!
So cute!!!

[Niggles]

Hi, I scroleed a bit through your stuff, and not only these little angels are soooh cute, but everything you do is amazing ... You're a sort of a fairy yourself. As the french say: chapeau!