Butterflies, Simple & Easy

I've worked with butterfly wing designs before, but other than the Luna Moth, most weren't all that memorable.  So I did some online picture research and started sketching out wing patterns and eventually came up with one design that I liked.  It's got a 6" wingspread from tip to tip, is all done as one piece so I don't have to do an upper and lower wing set separately, and it's simplified enough that I can do up 20 at a time fairly easily.

The design works with polar fleece, but could just as well have the bottom layer be felt for added stiffness.  I wasn't planning on stuffing the wings but they were so limp that I ended up suing a thin layer of stuffing between them.  The outline was sewn all the way around and I tucked in a 4" section of rat tail cording (2mm size) with knots on the end for the antenna as I machine sewed across the upper part of the wings.  There were indents between the upper and lower parts, clipped/trimmed close with a scissors after I went all the way around. Then I did a small slice where the body would be and stuffed the wings lightly.

All that was needed was a body, which I use the grey fake fur fabric for visual texture.  I had bits and pieces of that plus some bits from the Soft & Cuddly brand fuzzy fabrics, so I can do different colored bodies.  Once the vaguely rectangular circle was gathered and stuffed I just tacked it down tightly to the wings on top as a 'body' and then added 8 mm black pony bead eyes and it was done.  

They work best with a printed top and solid complementary color underside. No turning, no piecing wings together. Simple and fast.  They make good decorative pieces for hairbands, or kids toys, package decorating pieces OR cat toys!  The catnip goes into the butterfly body not the wings.  Finished size of the wings is 6" x 4".