DIY Feather Hair Clips

I've been eying feather hair clips since I saw Kenley wearing them on Project Runway. There are some lovely and rather affordable feather pieces available on Etsy and few other places, but money is too tight to justify even that purchase right now. Once I saw the headbands Jael Paris made, I decided to try making the clips myself instead of buying them.

All of my supplies were easily found at Walmart:
Feathers: 77 cents a bag
Thread: 89 cents a spool (match thread to felt) You could use glue too.
Felt: 20 cents a sheet (match felt to either feathers or hair)
Hair clips: $1 a package or free is you already have them
Total: $3.63 with a ton of supplies left over

I bought white feathers and brown feathers. I like the brown feathers better but they were smaller and harder to sew than the white ones. There were also only a few pretty feathers in the bag of most blah, flimsy feathers. The white feathers were easy to work with, but I don't like them as much in my dark hair.

Disclaimer: I cannot sew. Buttons are a challenge for me. My stitches are a little awkward and messy. However, the fact that I can make these means it must be really easy.

Click Image to Enlarge

Step One: Pick out feathers and arrange them into the shape you want.
Step Two: Cut out a piece of felt to back the lower part of the feathers (be sure it's big enough to hold your hair clip too).
Step Three: Stitch or glue feathers to felt.
Step Four: If your stitches show, glue or discreetly stitch a small feather on top to cover it up.
Step Five: Sew or glue the clip onto the back of the felt.


See, only five easy steps. I used a metal hair clip on the white feathers that was difficult to sew on without it sliding around so I ended up sewing it to another piece of felt, which I then attached to the felt backing of the feathers. For the brown feathers I just sewed a bobby pin on the back, which worked great. I've now found barrettes at the craft store that are made to be sewn onto bows so I might use those next time.

The first clip (the white one) took about 45 minutes. The second, smaller clip (the brown one) took about 20 minutes since I had practice.