My friend Donna has recently taken over the running of her local Brownie pack – yes, she’s a Brown Owl! How cool is that?! I was in the Brownies and then the Guides when I was a girl, although I don’t think I really appreciated them as much as I should have done at the time. In many ways I’d like to go back now, but Helen pointed out that I should probably join the WI instead!

 

I wanted to make something special for Donna, because I think it’s brilliant that she and her fellow Owls have taken on these roles, which are all voluntary. So I decided that Brownie badges were a good plan! Felt badges are really easy to make, and you can make the design as simple or as complicated as you can manage. So even if you don’t want to make owl badges you could make any felt badges in this way, so just follow the steps below.

 

You will need

 

Pencil and paper
Scissors (a pair for paper and a pair for fabric)
Some wool felt in various colours (I got mine here)
Matching thread
Pins and needle
Little pieces of fabric with a small print, matching the felt
Brooch backs (I got mine on eBay)

 

Step 1

 

Draw out your design and then cut out some little templates for each required piece (you might need to trace the design to do so). Pin the templates onto the felt and then carefully cut around each one. Layer them up to check that they are all the right size.

 

 

As I was making my owls, I changed my mind about the design – I cut body-sized pieces of fabric here instead of doing the separate scalloped pieces of felt that I had originally thought about. Don’t be afraid to change your design as you make, as I do it all the time!

 

Step 2

 

Next, I started stitching the pieces together. You might need to change thread a few times here, depending on how many colours you’ve used! I started with the beak because that was the smallest piece to get in the right place. I also stitched the head pieces on at this stage too.

 

 

Step 3

 

I decided that I wanted my owls to be on a background, because I wanted to stitch the pack name on each one. So at this point I cut out two oval-ish shapes of felt and then began to stitch the owl to one side of the badge.

 

 

As I got to the sides, I attached the wings at the same time. I obviously got carried away at this point, because I didn’t take any photos!

 

Step 4

 

I worked out where the lettering needed to be, and then marked it on with a fabric marker (ideally I should have used my dissolvable one, but I used a very fine quilt marker instead). Then I stitched over the letters using splitstitch, but you could use whatever you feel comfortable doing.

 

 

Step 5

 

The next step is to attach the brooch back to the other oval-ish piece of felt. Try to get it as central as possible!

 

 

Step 6

 

The final step is to attach the front and back of the badge, using a small running stitch.

 

 

Ta-dah! The badge is ready to wear. I also made a badge each for Snowy Owl and Tawny Owl too – I picked backing colours that would all work together. I really hope that the ladies like them, and wish them the best of luck running their new pack! 🙂

 

 

I would be more than happy to make these to order, so if you’re interested in having badges for your Brownie leaders just get in touch via my contact page.