Beginner Hand Embroidery Tutorial: Foxy Fox

Welcome to the third design in the Beginner Friendly Hand embroidery Patterns.

Foxy Fox is such a sweet little fox and very simple to create.

As a piece of hoop art this is a lovely classic design for a childs wildlife themed bedroom. Just like the bear, you could make a few of them and display as a banner to decorate a room.

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Materials required…

Wool Felt, choose from an array of gorgeous colours.
Embroidery Floss, I love DMC stranded for the quality and colours available.
Sticky Fabri Solvy Stabiliser, a nice easy way to transfer a design to felt.
Needle– I use a size 5 or 7 when stitching with felt.
Scissors – nice sharp pair of embroidery scissors.
For the Hanging Decoration… Extra Wool Felt for the back, Polyfill Stuffing and Ribbon
For the Hoop Art…
5 inch hoop (Flexi hoops are great for framing),
Fabric
Bondaweb

You will also need the Pattern Template…

Pattern Template – available from the link at the bottom of this post.

Note on the Sticky Fabri Solvy (SFS) – This makes transferring your design on to the felt so easy and all you need to do is wash it away after.

If you don’t want to use SFS there are other ways to make templates which you can find in my Resource Library with the printable: 5 Easy Peasy Ways to create templates for felt patterns.

For thread I used 2 strands of DMC Embroidery Thread for all stitching.

Let’s get stitching…

Trace the fox template (available from the link below) on to your Sticky Fabri Solvy, peel off the backing and then stick it to your felt.

Start by stitching the tail in Trellis Stitch and then both of the ears.

Next, stitch the outline for the body and head in Back Stitch.

Using the above photo as a guide, stitch a couple of rows of running stitch around the lower inside edge and then a couple of rows coming down from each ear on the inside…

Using black, split stitch around each eye and then fill in half of the centre with satin stitch so it looks like your fox is looking to his right.

Stitch the nose same as for the eyes but with satin stitch filling all of it.

Now trim the excess Sticky Fabri Solvy off from around your design just like the photo.

All you need to do then is soak off the SFS – you can see the process in the Heart tutorial.

Once dry, your fox should be looking fabulous!

Now you can decide if you wish to display him in a hoop or make a hanging dedoration…

How to display your fox in an embroidery hoop..

Iron a piece of Bondaweb to the back of your fox (before you cut the felt shape out).

Using sharp scissors, carefully cut around the outer edge of the fox approx. 1/8th inch from your stitches – if you are not confident then a bigger space of 1/4 inch will still look fine.

Remove the paper backing of the bondaweb and then iron the fox centrally to your chosen piece of fabric.

Hoop up your design and display!

How to make a Felt Hanging Decoration…

Using sharp scissors, carefully cut around the outer edge of your stitched fox approx. 1/8th inch from your stitches – if you are not confident then a bigger space of 1/4 inch will still look fine.

Take your extra piece of wool felt and place on the back of the fox. Using a sewing thread to match the colour of the felt, sew a nice tiny neat running stitch around the edge sewing the 2 pieces together.

Start at the bottom edge and sew around the back and up to the centre top – just before the centre top – take your ribbon – fold it in half and insert the 2 ends in between the pieces of felt at the top just enough so they will be sewn in securely and give you a nice hanging loop.

Continue with the running stitch and then before you reach where you started – leave a big enough gap to insert your stuffing – pop sufficiant in to plump it up so it is soft and squidgy and then close the gap and secure in the ends to the back.

Finally you need to cut the excess backing felt off (being very careful). Use the front fox piece as your guide cut around the remaining felt edges to create your fox and he will be all ready to hang and display like the one above.

Happy Stitching!

Free Template Download for making Foxy Fox is available from the Stitchdoodles Free Resource Library (link to access at the bottom of this post)

Want to remember this? Post this Felt Fox Tutorial to your favourite Pinterest board!