Sycamore Seed Moth

Sycamore Seed Moth 🌙

The nights are getting darker, but it’s warm enough to have the windows open a smidge, which means inevitably we have had a couple of moths inside the past week.

The little one was fascinated so we made some felted moths today with Sycamore seed wings and Antennae.

The unfortunately my phone ran out of charge whilst making them, but they are super easy to make at home.

You will need:

Warm soapy water (natural bar soap rubbed in the water will do.

Natural soap

A tea towel

Wool roving

Sycamore seeds (on their stalks preferable)

Watercolour painting (pans are better for this you could also use crayon and pencil)

A needle and thread OR Florist wire, if you want to make ones which sit wobbling on a wire like me.

Method:

• Pull tufts of roving, put them in a pile and sold them over until they are around An inch long, submerge in water and then gently roll in the palms to felt to a sausage shape. Leave to dry when felted.

• Paint / colour your sycamore seeds. Remove the stalks and set aside

• When your wool moth body is dry either attach the wings with a needle and thread (2 pairs of seed per moth) OR push florist wire up through the moth around a third of the way along the body leaving a long stem (you want about 1.5cm through the top side) thread the wings onto the wire then bend down. If you like you can wrap the longer length of wire around the body under the wing to secure further, bring it back under the tummy of the moth.

• Finally cut the stems from the seeds so you have Y shape pieces, attach these with a single stitch to the moth head, or use a speck superglue if you wish.

I will be adding our moths to our seasonal table by inserting the wire into the felt, you could stand yours in a jar or hang them if you wish with a length of thread.

Enjoy making and happy weekend to all!