Making an Applique Peacock

Step 1: Discovered the applique stitch on my sewing machine. Joy! All you do is twiddle a knob and put your foot down and you get rows of tight stitches binding the edges of the fabric.

Step 2: Drew a peacock on ordinary paper then traced it onto baking parchment and cut out the sections.

Step 3: Pinned the pattern to felt and cut out. I numbered the tail pieces to make putting it together again easier. You think you're going to be able to see how it all fits but v easy to make mistakes!

Step 4

I cut out and pinned 'eyes' for the tail feathers. They were a bit fiddly so I hand-stitched the bright blue circles to the dark blue triangles. It's quite hard to sew round in small circles on the machine.

Step 5: I sewed the main body on first. Not sure how you stop the backing material from puckering. I tried to keep it all flat but it still creases a bit.

Step 6: Then I sewed the 'eyes' onto the tail. That was pretty fiddly. He looked a bit bare when I had finished due to the cream backing fabric (should have used a pale blue), so I added some clouds.

Not sure what to do with him now. I might make him into a cushion for one of the girlies although not sure how well the felt will wash. Guess we could always have him dry cleaned from time to time.