These stuffed felt letters are our absolute favorite homemade toy (both kids learned to spell their names using them). These felt letters make a great homemade gift for a birthday or for Christmas and are a wonderful addition to a preschool classroom too! Here’s how to make your own set of felt stuffed letters perfect for practicing the alphabet.
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*This post was originally published on September 27, 2012 and has been updated.
Both my kids have loved playing with these homemade stuffed letters! My daughter used these felt toy letters to learn to spell her name, and my son is using them now to practice letter recognition and letter sounds. I love the sensory aspect of these hands-on ABC manipulatives and how this easy sewing project can turn into a wonderful and educational toy! (This post contains affiliate.)
Felt Stuffed Letter Tutorial
Materials for Stuffed Felt Letters
- Felt (I used wool felt similar to this
.)
- Scissors
- Embroidery Needle
- Embroidery thread
- Pins
- Printed out letters to trace onto your felt
Directions for Stuffed Felt Letters
1. Type and print the letters you’ll be making to create letter templates. I played around with different fonts until I found one I liked. (This set is made using Arial and the size is 420.)
2. Cut the letters out from the paper and trace them onto the felt. (I love using 100% wool felt! It’s very soft and feels good to work with.)
Make sure to make two of each letter for a front and back!
3. Pin the letters together.
4. Find some matching embroidery thread and thread your needle. (I had a huge stash from when I actually had time to do embroidery in the past, so I searched for the closest matches I had to the felt. There are 6 strands in the embroidery thread I used~ I pulled it into two sets of three for this project.)
5. Stitch around the edge of the pinned letters using a simple whip stitch. (Here’s a tutorial if you are unfamiliar with this kind of stitch.)
6. Before finishing the letter, stuff it with your stuffing. I used a fiberfill similar to this
7. Sew up the remainder of the letter and tie it off.
Here are all the completed letters!
Lucy and Theo enjoyed playing with the completed felt letters. My next goal is to do the letters for our long, 9 letter last name and then finally the rest of the alphabet!
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Jenn says
September 28, 2012 at 2:44 pmThese are so precious…I might have to use your idea for my son..I think he would love to play with these!!
Jenn says
September 28, 2012 at 2:46 pmP.S. I love how nice and neat your embroidery floss is…I only wish mine was so organized!!!
Chelsey says
September 28, 2012 at 2:47 pmI think it’s so organized because it’s been collecting dust! 🙂
Ginny Sturdy says
September 29, 2012 at 1:56 pmI love your little felt letters. Such a simple idea, but I bet they will have loads of fun with them.
Chelsey says
September 29, 2012 at 8:52 pmThank you! Definitely fun to make and fun to play with. 🙂
Annette says
September 29, 2012 at 6:17 pmThese are wonderful. Such a great hands-on learning tool! Please consider sharing on Waldorf Wednesday:
http://ourseasonsofjoy.com/waldorf-wednesday-link-up/waldorf-wednesday-link-up-5/
Chelsey says
September 29, 2012 at 8:51 pmThank you! I will stop by Waldorf Wednesday~ looks like a lot of great ideas there!
feltonthefly says
October 1, 2012 at 8:45 amWhat a wonderful blog post! And thanks so much for mentioning my wool felt shop : ) Great pictures and tutorial.
Janet at Felt On The Fly
Chelsey says
October 1, 2012 at 1:13 pmThanks! Huge fan of your shop! 🙂
Dawnelle Sarlo says
October 1, 2012 at 12:59 pmI love these letters! They are so incredibly adorable and useful!! I would love for you to stop by and link them up for Pintastic Monday! http://justdawnelle.blogspot.com/
Dawnelle
Chelsey says
October 1, 2012 at 1:12 pmThank you, Dawnelle! Will definitely stop by…
Anonymous says
October 3, 2012 at 2:59 pmThanks for sharing, I can’t wait to make a set for my little guy! The pics really help!
Sheila says
October 4, 2012 at 12:40 amBeautiful work! I know your children will enjoy these.
buggy & buddy says
October 6, 2012 at 8:27 amThank you, Sheila!
A Mrs. & A Mama says
October 11, 2012 at 10:59 amI’ve been wanting to make something like this for my daughters’ bedroom wall. I have the felt, just need the time….
buggy & buddy says
October 11, 2012 at 5:27 pmThat sounds cute! And I understand about needing the time! 🙂
Natalie Buehler (@Marigoldsloft) says
October 16, 2012 at 11:01 amWhat a super innovative idea! Thanks for visiting my blog and sharing on Tutorial Thursdays, I am very grateful.
x
http://www.marigoldsloft.blogspot.com
buggy & buddy says
October 16, 2012 at 1:05 pmThank you! So happy I found you! 🙂
Miss Courtney says
October 17, 2012 at 2:06 pmThanks. This is a sewing project I might actually be able to do!
buggy & buddy says
October 17, 2012 at 2:22 pmI felt the same way! 🙂 It’s actually very relaxing!
Julie says
October 25, 2012 at 7:48 amI love this idea! Thanks for linking to Mom’s Library!
Julie
Carrie says
October 25, 2012 at 10:39 amWhat a great idea!! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!
Ashley says
October 25, 2012 at 11:26 amAdorable!
enchantedhomeschoolingmom says
October 28, 2012 at 7:45 pmHow cute! This project must have taken you quite a bit of time to sew. Thanks for linking up this week to my Enchanted Thursdays Blog Hop!
Julie says
October 30, 2012 at 6:36 pmHi,
I am featuring this awesome activity on Mom’s Library Link-Up. Come check it out and grab a featured button from Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk. Also, I hope you link up some of your latest activities!
http://heymommychocolatemilk.blogspot.com/2012/10/moms-library-link-up-3-for-me.html
Be blessed,
Julie
buggy & buddy says
October 30, 2012 at 8:47 pmThank you so much, Julie!
Vanessa @ See Vanessa Craft says
November 6, 2012 at 7:02 pmSuper cute!! I’d love for you to link this up to Tot School Tuesday: http://seevanessacraft.com/2012/11/tot-school-tuesday-high-five-color-hands-activity/
Christy says
November 11, 2012 at 12:23 pmI’ve made some of these with fabric, but I like these with felt. Cute.
jana@HowToRunAHomeDaycare says
February 18, 2013 at 4:34 pmI love sewing with felt and these are such a cute idea. I’m going to make some for my son who is currently learning how to spell his name. Thanks for the great idea!
Randi - Dukes and Duchesses says
March 12, 2013 at 5:51 amThose are so cute. I’ve been working on letters with my youngest and I really need to make something tactile like that. Thanks for the great idea!
Jennifer Shelby says
April 2, 2013 at 10:16 pmI love these (runs to wool felt stash)
Chelsey says
April 3, 2013 at 9:59 pmThanks, Jennifer! I really really want to make enough to complete the whole alphabet. I’m going to head to your wool felt stash….:)
Rebecca at thisfineday says
May 23, 2013 at 8:50 pmOH- my. Those are so precious. How cute to give to a one year old or a newborn baby!? Thanks for the tutorial!!
Chelsey says
May 28, 2013 at 4:37 pmThank you, Rebecca. We’ve loved them. I still feel a bit sentimental when I picture Lucy as a 2 year-old playing with them.
Sarah says
September 1, 2013 at 6:05 pmHow many letters do you get with one sheet of this wool felt you order? Just trying to figure out how much I would need to do the whole alphabet!
Chelsey says
September 1, 2013 at 11:35 pmHi Sarah~ My letters were a bit large, so I could trace about 4 per sheet (when using the 8×12 sized felt). If you consider that you’ll need a front and back for each letter, that works out to about 2 full letters per sheet. But, some of the letters are skinnier and don’t take as much room like ‘i’ ‘l’ ‘f’ etc. You can also do them a bit smaller (around 4 inches) and would probably be able to trace 6 letters (equaling 3 full letters) on a sheet.
Jennifer Watson says
October 11, 2013 at 4:49 pmHi! I love this project. I got all my materials except for stencils. I didn’t like the stencils at Michaels and I thought I could print some from online, but googling hasn’t yielded any results. Where did you get your letter stencils to trace on the felt? Sorry if you answered this already. I quickly scrolled through the comments.
Thanks!
Jenn
Chelsey says
October 11, 2013 at 5:34 pmHi Jennifer~ I actually just typed the letters on my computer and printed them out. (I used Arial, size 420). I cut them out from the paper and used them to trace onto the felt. Super easy! Good luck! I’d love to see a pic of the finished project if you get a chance! 🙂
Meredith @ Homegrown Friends says
February 12, 2014 at 9:21 amThese turned out beautiful! Pinning to my literacy board!
Chelsey says
February 12, 2014 at 9:37 amThank you, Meredith!
Annie says
March 28, 2015 at 2:16 pmThese are so fun! I’ve made two so far and hope to make the whole alphabet. Thanks for the idea!
Chelsey says
March 29, 2015 at 9:38 amYay! I’m so glad, Annie!!
Lindsey says
December 19, 2015 at 11:21 amHow did you make the lower case “i”? Is there wire? I did capitals first, but still want to do lower. Thanks!
Chelsey says
December 19, 2015 at 11:32 amHi Lindsey- I just make the dot of the ‘i’ separate, so the lowercase ‘i’ actually has two parts. Hope that helps!