Felt Apple Pencil Topper
Create these adorable Felt Apple Pencil Toppers for the back-to-school season with a free template! These make the perfect teacher gift. When you’re done, check out these Mermaid Pencil Toppers. This post contains affiliate links.
Here’s an adorable back-to-school accessory for your favorite teacher or student! (or for yourself, you deserve nice things too!) Apples are in full ripening season in the Northeast US where I live starting August, and they bring to mind all the sweetness, crispness, and freshness of Fall and a new school year!
Their bright, friendly colors make them a real inspiration for arts and crafts. The samples we’ve made include both red and green apples for a bright, fun contrast.
One cool thing about this project is that because all the parts are so small, you can use scraps of felt left over from other projects if you have any. I love the opportunity to put that kind of leftovers to good use! You can check out more fun things to make with felt scraps here.
To adapt this project for younger crafters, you can use felt glue or tacky glue instead of sewing. It won’t have quite the same charming effect as the stitching, but it would be basically the same design and would still work just fine as a pen or pencil topper.
You can also use a drop of felt or tacky glue to hold the pieces in place while you sew, to make the sewing easier. You can buy glue that is made for felt, or try tacky glue or fabric glue – but regular school glue doesn’t tend to work well with felt as it is too liquidy and gets absorbed into the fibers.
The template includes two designs – one is much simpler than the other, so if you or your young helper are still learning to sew, that would be a good place to start before deciding whether to try the more detailed design. The instructions below start with the more detailed one, but the process would be the same for both and you can start with either one.
What you’ll need
- Colored felt sheets or scraps (we used red, green, brown, and white)
- Matching thread
- Printed template – get it at the end of this post
- Detail Scissors
- Needle
- Optional: felt or tacky glue
How to make a felt apple pencil topper
1. The template includes patterns for 2 different designs. We’re starting with the sliced apple pencil topper (labeled “design 2” on your printable template). Print and cut out the template patterns. Trace the patterns on the selected felt pieces and use a pair of sharp scissors to cut them out neatly.
2. Take the smaller apple cutout (cut out from white felt) and place seed cutouts near the center of the cutout, with the pointy ends facing toward the center (this is when you might want to use a drop of glue to help hold them in place). Thread a needle with brown thread to match the seeds.
3. Stitch the seeds onto the white cutout.
4. Place the white cutout with the seeds on top of one of the apple base cutouts. Thread a needle with white thread.
5. Sew the white piece onto the apple base by making small white stitches all around the edge of the white piece.
6. Either running stitches or blanket stitches would work out fine for this craft. Sew it any way you feel comfortable!
7. Take the other apple base cutout and place the leaf and stem cutouts near the top, in middle. The stem and leave should slightly overlap the top of the apple. If you’d like, you can use a dot of glue to help them stay in place while you do the next steps.
8. Place the apple with the white and seeds on top of the plain apple cutout, with the stem and leaf between the two apple layers. Thread a needle with red thread.
9: Stitch around the edges of the apple bases to join them together, leaving a small opening in middle of the bottom to slide over a pen or pencil. When you’re done stitching, tie 2 tight knots and cut off the extra thread.
The other design included with the template uses the same techniques but simpler, as it only shows the outside of the apple so you don’t need to sew together the white flesh and seeds. The template includes a little white light reflection to make the design pop a little.
And there you are! Now you’re ready to get back to work or school with extra pizzazz!
Download the Felt Apple Pencil Topper
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