Felt Aquarium Magnets
When I was in the third grade my class took a field trip to Point Reyes, California to look at the tide pools. I was fascinated by them, each pool was like a small secret world. There were orange and purple sea stars, tiny little fish, and flower-like sea anemones. When I stuck my finger in an anemone’s mouth it’s sticky petal-like tentacles would close around it, thinking it was food (this probably isn’t a nice thing to do to an anemone, but it certainly made an impression on me). My love for the ocean and all of its creatures has only grown in the subsequent years. I did some snorkeling in Hawaii and saw fish of every size, shape and color though the crystal clear water. It’s hard to believe that some of the fish I saw were even real, they seemed too bright and too bizarre to be found in nature.
When we decided to make a set of felt-covered magnets I knew I wanted to make an underwater scene. I found pictures of my favorite fish and other sea life and came up with nine different creatures. Making them with of our bright, beautiful 100% wool felt was very simple and so much fun! I loved watching them come alive and once they were all done I had a surprisingly fun time posing them on their light blue magnetic board (AKA the Aquarium).
This underwater world makes a great gift for a child, or even an adult, who loves the ocean. The tiny magnet inside each creature is super powerful, which makes this a really useful present, a whimsical take on a bulletin board. Thanks! -Molly
Designed by Purl Soho designer, Molly Schnick. Click here to see even more of Molly’s work!
Materials
To make 20 magnets:
- Wool Felt Bundle in Dahlia
- 1 piece of Wool Felt in each of the following colors: Black, Ecru, Lime, and Turquoise
- Embroidery Thread in colors to match the felt
- Two 10-piece packages of 8mm Super Magnets (20 magnets total). You can find them here (they are the third item from the top, all the way to the left)
- One 15 x 15-inch light blue magnetic board available online here
- Download and print Felt Aquarium Magnets Template here
Notes
Tips for all Magnets
These magnets are all very simple to put together and don’t require any fancy embroidery or techniques. However there are a few rules of thumb for all the magnets:
- First cut out the paper template of the shape and then trace it onto the felt as shown above.
- The magnets I suggest above are amazingly strong, which is great, but it means you’ll want to put them inside of the shape you’re sewing up at the few stitches before you sew the shape closed, otherwise they will stick to your needle.
- Make sure all of your sewing knots are on the back.
- All of the sewing in this project is done with a small running stitch using embroidery thread to match the felt, unless otherwise noted.
Please follow the instructions and diagrams below to put together all the different aquatic creatures.
Pattern
Clownfish
Finished size: 1 1/2-inches wide
- Cut out the pieces. You will have: 2 fish pieces in one color and 3 stripe pieces in a contrasting color.
- Place and sew the stripe pieces on to a fish piece as shown above.
- Sew both of the fish pieces right sides facing out with the magnet in-between the layers thus encasing the magnet. When you get to the stripes sew underneath them so the orange stitches do not show through on the stripes.
Sea Anemone
Finished size: 1 1/4-inches tall
- Cut out the pieces. You will have: 2 base pieces in one color and 1 ring piece in a contrasting color.
- Tie a French knot in the middle of one of the base shapes using a contrasting color of embroidery thread as shown above. Click here for an explanation of how to tie a French knot.
- Sew the base pieces together with the magnet in-between the layers thus encasing the magnet.
- Cut notches from outside of the ring shape until it resembles a pom pom or flower shape, as shown above.
- Sew the ring onto the base around the inner circle of the ring (you will also be sewing around the magnet on the inside of the base.
Angelfish
Finished size: 1 3/4-inches wide
- Cut out the pieces. You will have: 2 fish pieces in one color and 2 stripes in a contrasting color.
- Sew the stripes to one of the fish pieces as shown above.
- Sew both fish pieces right sides facing out with the magnet in-between the layers thus encasing the magnet.
Coral and Urchins
Finished size: 1 3/4-inches tall
- Cut out the pieces. You will have: 2 coral pieces in one color, 1 small urchin piece in a contrasting color, and 1 large urchin piece in a third color.
- Sew together the two coral pieces with the magnet in-between the layers thus encasing the magnet.
- Cut notches all along the curved sides on both of the urchin pieces.
- Sew the urchins to the bottom of the coral.
Jellyfish
Finished size: 1 3/4-inches tall
- Cut out the pieces. You will have: 2 body pieces in one color and 1 tentacle piece in a contrasting color.
- Sew the body pieces together with the top section of the tentacle piece and the magnet in-between the layers thus encasing the magnet and the tentacles.
Lemon Butterflyfish
Finished size: 1 3/4-inches wide
- Cut the pieces. You will have: 2 fish pieces in one color and 1 spot marking in a contrasting color.
- Sew the spot marking to the front of one of the fish pieces.
- Sew the two fish pieces together with th e magnet in-between the layers thus encasing the magnet.
Parrotfish
Finished size: 2 1/4-inches wide
- Cut out the pieces. You will have: 2 fish pieces in one color and 1 fin piece in a contrasting color.
- Sew the fin on towards the middle of one of the fish pieces.
- Starting from the bottom fin curve of the fish shape, sew the two fish pieces right sides facing out using a contrasting thread color, ending at the top fin curve. Sew over the fin curves with the contrasting thread using a big running stitch to highlight the fins.
- Stick the magnet into the fish shape and sew the head of the fish shape shut using a matching embroidery thread.
Sea Star
Finished size: 1 3/4-inches wide
- Cut out the pieces. You will have: 2 star pieces.
- Sew both star pieces right sides facing out with the magnet in-between the layers thus encasing the magnet. Instead of using a running stitch sew it together using French knots. Click here for an explanation of how to do French knots.
Threadfin Butterflyfish
Finished size: 2 1/4-inches wide
- Cut out the pieces. You will have: 2 fish pieces in one color, 3 fin pieces in a contrasting color, and 1 dot marking in a third color.
- Place the fish pieces together and place the fin pieces on top of them. Sew the fin pieces on through both fish pieces.
- Sew the front of the fish pieces together with the magnet in-between the layers thus encasing the magnet.
- Sew on the dot marking through the top fin.
All Done!
Once you’ve made all the magnets it’s really fun to pose them on the magnetic board!
These are so fresh and fun! I can’t wait to make them for my grand daughters, who live in Perth, Australia! I love everything Molly creates! Thank you for inspirational projects and the GREAT directions, pictures and comments you publish! You totally rock!
Wow, these are so cool! These will be great for when my kindergarten class studies underwater life. I can imagine a really neat activity to go along with this. Thanks for sharing!
Those are so cool! I love them.
Me encanta este acuario tan original! Muy chulo
I like that you encased the magnets between layers of felt…making the sea creatures more child-friendly and without the use of any hot glue or other adhesives. Hours of creative fun await the children who will be getting a box full of these felt toys. Thanks…
These are so cute. They’d be perfect for my sister. She’d love them. Thanks for the fun & easy gift idea!!
amazing! these are so cool and I can’t wait to make some of my own!
Hi! I have followed your blog for awhile now but never commented before. I just love these! They are so darling and so easy looking to make! I just wanted to thank you for being so nice and sharing your talent with us! =:)
Blessings!
~Miss Rachel~
Hi Molly!
I have received all the materials I ordered and I am ready to start! Do I ned to enlarge the patterns, or are they the correct size right off the printer?
(I left the first comment, so excited to start this great project.)
Many thanks!
Stephanie C.
Hi Stephanie,
The patterns are the right size out of the printer, no need to enlarge them (unless you want to, of course!). Have fun!
Thank you very much for the inspiration. These are so cute !
That is gorgeous! And I love how you presented the tutorial steps! Brilliant! Adding you to my google reader and kicking myself for not having found you and done that earlier! Thank you!
Hello
I loved this project.
However, I have made two angelfishes already, and I find that the felt frays a lot, and the end result is not as neat as in your pictures. 🙁
Umm…felt doesn’t fray.
Oooohhh I love these. Fantastic gift for little ones!!!
I made them, and my son loves them!
http://www.babylohman.blogspot.com/2010/02/moving.html
Thanks!
this is just the thing i needed! thank you! i used these fish to make a game for my kiddos. you can see it blogged about here:
http://sarahnielsen.com/2010/05/tutorial-tuesday-felt-fishing-game-for-kids/
Hi, thanks very much.
I pick up some of the fishes and did a pouch to keep baby's documents, here:
http://crafts-experiencias.blogspot.com/2010/11/porta-documentos.html
I love that you have a link to all the patterns – thanks 😀
my daughter is having an under the sea bday party and i am going to enlarge these and make a fishing game out of them 😀
These are so cute! Yes, the pattern is for very small fish. I just blew it up to make some that are safe for my little boy. Thanks for posting!
This is great! I'm making a mermaid softie for my 3 year old daughter for Christmas and plan to make some fishy friends (minus the magnets). Great idea!!
This is great! I don't see the magnetic board available online anymore, do you still have this available?
Hi Dana-
We never sold the magnetic board directly. I have found a few options at the link below. Thanks for your question!
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=blue+magnetic+board&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=kN6&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvns&resnum=2&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1026&bih=647&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=1281855509564628820&sa=X&ei=giaoTu2LEujCsQLK54DgDw&ved=0CG4Q8wIwAA
I just love this project that I featured you on my blog 🙂
http://myfeltfriends.blogspot.com/2012/01/felt-fish-by-purl-bee.html
I made a on the go felt activity book for my niece. It had an underwater page in it and she adores that activity book to death! I can only imagine the fun she could have inside with a magnetic board such as this one! Thanks for the wonderful tutorial!
Here is the link to my felt activity book if you want to check it out: http://stitchamaroo.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/kids-felt-activity-book-no-sew/
These are really cute; I can't wait to make them.
Just wanted to pass this info on the “super magnets” on, though– I was looking into ordering the magnets when I came across this article and others like it suggesting that the extraction of neodynium (the “super magnets”) is pretty environmentally devastating. I'm hoping regular ceramic magnets will work too!
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/05/clean-energy-apos-s-dirty-little-secret/7377/
Thanks so much for the inspiration! I saw this on Pinterest and made several this weekend. I blogged it with a link here 🙂
http://coconutxoxo.blogspot.com/2012/10/diy-puffy-felt-magnets.html
Just wanted to thank you for such a great idea and your generosity in sharing the patterns. I tried drawing that Angel fish free hand and finally downloaded the pattern. Thanks!!!
Hi! I saw these magnets on Pinterest. I thought they were so adorable I was inspired to make some of my own for my daughter to play with!
I haven't finished all of them yet but I posted them on my blog and linked back here!
http://www.feltwithlovedesigns.com/2013/07/10/pinterest-projects-aquarium-magnets/
LOVE the pattern. Thank you!
Hello! So I am wanting to make a quiet book for my daughter and think these are adorable! I am a beginner and this might be a dumb question but are these hand stitched or is it done on a machine? Thanks for the help and the inspiration!
Hi Melissa-
They are hand-stitched.
Thanks so much for your question!
Molly
They're all great!!! Thank you!!!!
Les agradecera que se pusieran en contacto con mi correo pues me interesa estos dibujitos en fieltro para poderlo comprar….
Babysitting is now about to be more fun! Thanks.