Rainbow Trout Ornament! Easy felt sewing project idea.
Follow along with our step by step tutorial to create this beautiful rainbow trout ornament. It’s the perfect one day felt sewing project and can be used as an ornament, wall decor, or keychain.
Today we will share our process of creating this adorable rainbow trout ornament. Our dad is the main inspiration for this felt project. Last year we made him a rainbow trout polymer clay charm so we thought this felt ornament would be a perfect addition to his collection. The sequins and beads add just the right amount of color and texture. We hope you enjoy this project and get inspired to make your own. We have provided a Free PDF printable pattern at the bottom of the page for you to download.
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Materials you will need
- Scissors
- 5 inch embroidery hoop
- Embroidery hoop holder (optional)
- Sewing needle
- Sewing pins
- Tacky glue
- Embroidery thread (green, white, blue, pink, black)
- Embroidery thread wax (optional)
- Green felt (one sheet)
- White felt (one sheet)
- 4mm sequins (pink and blue)
- 6mm sequins (white)
- Black seed beads
Step 1
Trace your pattern piece on the designated felt colors using a ballpoint pen. Next, carefully cut out all of the pattern pieces. Make sure to leave the front body of the fish uncut so that you can place it in the embroidery hoop. I like to use an embroidery hoop holder so my hands don’t get as tired when sewing on all the details. Important note: You will use three strands thick of embroidery thread throughout the whole project.
Step 2
Take the white belly pattern piece and line it up on the fish body. Using the white embroidery thread, sew along the inner lines of the belly and where it meets the fin. This is indicated by red lines shown in the picture below. I like to use embroidery thread wax to keep my thread more manageable and less knotted. This is optional but I thought I’d recommend it because I feel like it helps.
Step 3
After the belly is sewn, you can glue on the fin piece using tacky glue. Make sure to let the glue dry all the way before moving on to the next step.
Step 4
Now it’s time to sew on the sequin details. Use pink embroidery thread to sew a line of pink sequins along the white part of the belly starting at the fin and ending at the tail. Then add a line of blue sequins using your blue embroidery thread on the green part of the trout body. Start the blue line slightly ahead of the pink, but end it at the same spot.
Step 5
The next step is adding the eye. I used one 6mm white sequin and a black seed bead. Take your black embroidery thread and go from the back side of the felt straight through the sequin and the bead. Then go back through the sequin in the same spot and tie off the thread on the backside. This will create the eyeball.
Step 6
Now you can take the black seed beads and sew them onto the green part of the trout body using black embroidery thread. I used around 8 beads on mine but feel free to use more or less depending on the look you want your fish to have.
Step 7
Embroider lines on the fish fins using green embroidery thread. The placement of these details are indicated on the free PDF pattern. Sew a running stitch as the base of each line and a whipped backstitch going back down each line.
Step 8
After you add a few more black seed beads to the tail you will be ready to remove the rainbow trout from the embroidery hoop and carefully cut it out.
Step 9
Use a few sewing pins to pin the front of the fish onto the green base. Take your green embroidery thread and sew along the whole perimeter of the felt ornament using a blanket stitch.
Step 10
Take some green embroidery thread and loop it through the blanket stitch at the mouth of the fish for the ornament to hang by. You could also hook a jump ring through the blanket stitch as well if you would rather it hang by a keychain. You are now done with your rainbow trout ornament!
I hope you enjoyed this project and had fun following along. If you create your own rainbow trout ornament we would love to see it. Tag us on Instagram @mirrortwins.studio and we will share it on our story.
