Veterans’ Day Poppy

On November 11th of every year, many people in the Western world honor our veterans. Mostly by wearing poppies.

This year, I am making out own simple felt poppies to wear, and I am sharing it with you.
They take little time to make, so if you have red and black felt (or a black button) you can have one to wear in under an hour. A few people and an afternoon could have a basketful to donate, hand out, or sell to raise money.

You’ll need a strip of red felt and a disk of black felt (use your scraps!) and thread (I have used quilting thread, doubled sewing thread, and 2 strands of floss. It’s not seen, but will need to be strong to not break when pulled).
Of course, you’ll need a needle and scissors and possibly a tapestry needle to help pull the thread tightly.
I’ve included the pattern.

So the first thing you’ll need to do is cut out your poppy flower and center. You want to cut on the solid lines. The dashed lines are your stitching lines. You do not need to transfer them. You can scale the flower up or down at this point.

For the petals, you want to start at one corner with a knot, and stitch along the long curve and up each petal. This is a simple running stitch, and not too tightly. The dashed lines are a pretty good size to go by.

Then you want to carefully pull the thread so the felt bunches up on itself. This is where a toothpick or large needle can be helpful. You can use this time to nudge the petals into whatever shape you want to. When the flower is bunched, attach the end to the area you started, drawing the flower into a circle.

Then you can put that aside, and work on the center. The center can be a button or a disk of knots, or anything you want. Here I used a black felt disk. Stitch around the outside and pull it closed again. Then take a few stitches across the back so that it flattens out and sits well