A teacher gift – personalised felt & fabric keyring tutorial

Posted on by Thecreativepixie

Here in Northern Ireland the schools end for the summer break this Friday 28th June. As my daughter is finishing her 1st year of school I wanted to make something for her teachers and teaching assistant to say thank you for making her year so enjoyable.

finished 3 keyrings

Teachers are always misplacing their keys so I came up with the idea of giving these ladies some personalised keyrings that are easily identifiable.

Below is a tutorial  if anyone else wants to give it a go.materials for keyring

To make Mrs P’s keyring you will need some: fabric, felt, heat ‘n’ seal (H ‘n’ S), ribbon, thread, buttons, a key ring.

 note: when sewing on the machine I did the lettering and the borders a couple of times to make them stand out. This doesn’t need to  perfect, in fact the imperfection in the stitching adds to its effectiveness: ideal for the novice stitcher!

Step 1: Draw 2 different sized circles as a template. The large circle will be the back of the keyring and the smaller circle will be for the front.draw circles Step 2: Place the larger template on a piece of felt, draw round  and cut out.circle on felt Step 3: Cut out a piece of fabric large enough for both circle templates. Repeat for the piece of H ‘n’ S. Place the H ‘n’ S on the wrong side of the fabric and iron to bond. heat and seal
Step 4: Place the large and small templates on the H ‘n’ S, draw round and cut out. You now have 2 circles of fabric and 1 of felt.3 circles  Step 5: Peel the paper backing off the small fabric circle and place the wrong side down on top of the felt circle. Iron to bond.fabric ironed on felt Step 6:  Sew round the inner edge of the fabric circle.sew border
Step 7: Embroider using the sewing machine the name you want to put on the keyring. wording Step 8: Cut a small length of ribbon and loop through a keyring. Pin to the back of the keyring. Sew a couple of stitches to secure.pin ribbon Step 9: Unpeel the backing from the larger fabric circle and place wrong side down on the back of the felt. Iron to bond.iron backing fabric
Step 10: Sew round the inner edge of the larger fabric circle.sew back fabric Step 11:  Sew 2 buttons together, then secure to the front of the keyring.button

The finished keyring for Mrs P:

finished mrs p

To make a slightly different keyring for Mrs K  I used the same method as Mrs P but I also added some ric-rac to the front.

mrs K

For Mrs H, I decided to give her keyring a wavy felt edge .

mrs H

So here are the 3 keyrings ready to be given to their wonderful new owners.

crayons and keyrings

Thanks to Mrs P, Mrs H and Mrs K for all their hard work this year, Poppy’s P2 teacher has a lot to live up to 🙂 .

19 thoughts on “A teacher gift – personalised felt & fabric keyring tutorial”

    1. I hope it’s clear enough, I had a lot more photos but decided that there was too many so cut it back.

      Reply

  2. What a great idea Jean! I love that you can use all those scraps of fabric, trims, and buttons that I know you can’t throw away. 😉 Thanks for the idea and the tutorial. Hugs, Tamara

    Reply

    1. I had great fun going through my button jars, then left my 2 year old to play putting them all back.

      Reply

  5. Love this idea! I too have lots of old buttons (you can never have too many I reckon). what a fabulous way to use them. Thank you for the clear instructions! I think I’ll be making some for my daughter’s preschool teachers at the end of the year. 🙂

    Reply

    1. Glad you could follow the instructions ok. I’ll look forward to seeing what you make 🙂

      Reply

    1. Thanks. It’s a make that’s surprised me by its popularity. Maybe I should make something similar again.

      Reply

  9. Oh my goodness, they are so cute!! I love the idea, and they’re so colorful fun to look at. I’m sure they loved them!

    Blessings,
    Marianne

    Reply

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