hand sewn jellyfish craft

Today we’re sharing a super cute hand-sewn jellyfish craft for kids.

Use our free printable template to sew a big jellyfish, a medium jellyfish, or a mini little baby jellyfish. Or all three, because more jellyfish together have more fun!

As a special extra, we’ve even included a deadly box jellyfish from Northern Australia.

This craft was first published in 2019 and has been updated and reshared for today’s audience.

You might also like our dinosaur softies

Did you know jellyfish can clone themselves? When they’re injured or split in half, each half can reproduce the missing half, making two whole jellyfish. They’ve also been around since before the dinosaurs. 

Incredible, huh? That makes them totally worthy of recreating from felt.

Of course, if you want your jellyfish to have a clone, you’ll have to sew another one yourself with our free printable pattern which comes in three different sizes.

Plus there’s also the box jelly template. You don’t want to get stung by one of these guys! It has the most toxic venom of any marine animal in the world (capable of killing a person even before they leave the water). 

Don’t stress though, the ribbon stingers on our softie jellyfish craft are totally harmless.

Ready to get sewing?

How to sew a jellyfish craft

You will need:

• Felt in the size of the jellyfish you wish to sew (we use ordinary felt pieces from the craft store)
• Additional felt scraps for the facial features
• Needle and needle threader
• Embroidery thread
• Tacky craft glue or fabric glue
• Ribbon
• Stuffing
• Scissors

How to:

Print out the template and select the size you wish to make. 

Pin the body to two pieces of felt and cut them out.

Hold the facial features over a piece of felt scrap and cut out the shapes (they are too small and fiddly to pin). You could alternatively design your own face.

Cut the ribbon into 6-10 strands (depending on the width of your ribbon and the width of your jellyfish). Sew them onto the base of one of the body pieces.

Place the second body piece on top of the one with the ribbon sewn on and sew most of the way around using running stitch. 

When you have a small gap left fill it with stuffing, then sew closed.

Glue the facial features on.

And that’s all there is to it!

Of course, you’ve probably had so much fun making the first jellyfish you’ll want to make another one.

This project is part of Sew-a-softie—an initiative with the aim of getting kids around the world learning to sew. 

Check out more sewing projects from this series like these cute cookies by Creating Creatives, this scrap-eating monster by My Poppet and this Very Hungry Caterpillar by Oh Creative Day.

More ocean animal craft ideas for kids

• Here are 14 paper plate ocean animal templates, complete with fun facts so kids can learn about the animals as they make them
• This egg carton goldfish is just the cutest!
• Our paper roll fish has always been popular
• Make a paper roll seahorse puppet