Let’s say you’ve finished all the elements of your felt plushies and now it’s time to attach them. You attach everything, and obviously you end up with leftover threads coming out. It doesn’t matter if you’re attaching pieces. Adding decorative stitches on the muzzle. Or making a doll and you’ve got threads hanging there like: “Hi, am I ruining your clean finish?!”
When you finish sewing, you need to get rid of that thread in the cleanest way possible. If you’ve ever asked yourself, “How do I do this?” You’re in the right place, because by the end of this article you will know exactly how easy it is to make a neat finish on your project using your Sewing Needles, Thread, Soft Felt, and the Stuffing/Filling inside your plush.
Why This Question Used to Drive Me Mad?
Hi, my name is Alyona, and I’ve been sewing for as long as I can remember. When I started my felt craft hobby, this was the number one question that kept stumbling around in my mind. I was like, “God… how do I do this?” Less lucky me 😂.
Back in the day it was very difficult to find information online. There were not really that many articles, and on YouTube it was almost nothing. So most of the time I had to figure things out myself. In some cases I was lucky because I could contact people who were more experienced than me.
If people were humble enough to reply, they would help me. Some people had a bigger crown, like the “I’m not giving away my techniques” kind of people 🤦♀️. So I figured it out myself – and lucky you, you don’t need to do that. Because I’m sharing it with you right now 😉.
The Clean Finish Trick (No Rocket Science, Promise)
This is probably going to be the shortest article I ever wrote in my life. So, let’s say you’ve finished sewing everything you had to sew, and now you’re sitting there with your thread and needle thinking, “OK… what now?”
Just take your needle and punch it back in at the place where the needle comes from, through the element you’re working on. Then take the needle out on the opposite side, so the thread comes out somewhere else.
When you pull the thread, stretch it and pull it a little bit tighter than you normally would. Then cut the thread straight away next to the felt.
What Happens Next (And Why It Looks So Neat)
Here’s the little “secret” you just found out. When your felt and the stuffing inside bounce back, the leftover thread automatically sinks inside the felt and the stuffing. It disappears into the head or the body – whatever part you’re working on – and you get that clean finish.
So yes… voilà. That’s it. No rocket science, nothing complicated. If you’re thinking, “That can’t seriously be the whole trick,” it is. And honestly, I love this!
A Quick Example With My Sweet Felt Elephant
Let’s say I’m working on one of my Fav sweet felt elephant – and as you can imagine, there’s a lot of face or muzzle stitching. I call them a face because they’re so cute 😂, and because English is not my native language, so sorry for that 🙈.
So I finish all those stitches on the face. Then I push my needle through the element, and the needle comes out from the back of the head of the elephant (or whatever creature you are working on at the moment). When it comes out, I stretch and pull it a little bit tighter than I normally would, and then I cut the thread right next to the felt.
Then the felt and stuffing bounce back, and the end of the thread sinks inside the head. Clean. Finished. No little thread tail waving goodbye 👋.
If You Can Still See Stitches/Knot on the Back
Now, if this article was useful, I think you might also be interested in How to Make Your Stitch Disappear on Felt. What I mean by “make a stitch disappear” is this: sometimes you block the thread at the back while stitching eyes or making a 3D face for your doll or creature, and on the back you can visibly see all the stitching.
In that article, I explain how to make that visible area become even and disappear so you don’t see it 🫥. And especially when I’m creating facial elements, I usually work with darker threads to have contrast – which means on the back you see that thread a lot more.
So in that one, I’m sharing how to completely make it disappear like magic, like a snap of the finger. And yes, that one is probably the second shortest article you’ll read on my blog 😂.
My Patterns, a Freebie, and What to Read Next
Well, seems like this is the end – and it’s not the time to say goodbye, because you absolutely have to grab the free pattern. This pattern goes to everyone who finishes my article from the beginning until the end, because I genuinely appreciate you being here 🧵🫶.
I am in love with creating patterns, I’m in love with testing them, and I’m in love with crafting ✂️. This is my kind of thank you to you for reading my content and being with me.
And on top of this, if you want to see more of my pattern collection I’ve been talking to you about, you can always find my Sewing Patterns Collection on my website.
So, I’ll see you in my next article. Bye 👋.
