Archive for the ‘tutorials’ Category

Last week, when I was fiddling with making my Pom Poms and Hearts Brooch, I made some fabric covered buttons.  I wanted to incorporate them into the brooch.  But after fiddling, I decided they didn’t work.

I had to find another way to use these cute buttons.  And the obvious answer was to make hair clips.  Which, as a mother of twin girls, we can never have too many of.

Here’s how I made them:

Using the template provided with the button kit, cut out your fabric of choice… remember to center the pattern in the middle of the circle, if you desire.

Have you ever made fabric covered buttons?  If not, you’re in for treat.  They are SO easy.

I tuck all the fabric down into the mold.

Lay the back on.

And pop it down.

And out pops the button.

Here’s one easy way to turn my button into a hair accessory.  Using a thinnish hair elastic band, slide it through the shank of the button.

And pull one end of the band through the other.  Give it a tug to make it tight.

And it’s ready for pigtails.

But I’m not done yet.  I want to make a hair clip, too.

For this button, I pressed the shank flat against the back.

Open the hair clip and hot glue the button to the clip.

And instead of wasting my cute buttons, I’ve put them to good use.  They will look so fun with the girls new skirts.

Earlier in the week, I showed the Girly Skirts I made for my girls.  But I wanted to add a little extra something sweet to the outfits for Valentine’s Day.

Then I had an idea at 2:00 am that seemed brilliant and I wanted to give it a try.

Like most ideas I have at 2:00 am, it didn’t work out exactly as I hoped.  In fact, I had to play and play with this project to come up with something I was really happy with.

The idea was to use pom poms, which my girls love.

It turned out to be a brooch for the skirt.  A skrooch…. no… a brirt… definitely no.

No, It’s just a brooch… best worn on a skirt.  But it might be really cute on a scarf too…. or a coat.  In the end, the project turned out to be much more simple that I thought… which I love best of all.

Here’s what you need for this project:

• approx. ten yards of yarn of choice- not too fine or you’ll need more
• small amount of red felt
• small amount of pink felt
• a safety pin or broach pin
• freezer paper
• I will posting a heart template on Saturday…. I used the inside and outside edges of a small cookie cutter.

Here’s how I made this project. Start by making pom poms:

Wind the yarn around your fingers.  I used approx. 4 1/2 – 5 yards of yarn.  The amount sort of depends on the thickness of your yarn.

Slip it off your fingers and tie a piece of yarn around the bundle, pulling the string very tight.  Make sure your string has about a 6 inch tail.  That gives you something to hold on to while you’re making the pom poms… and also is what allows the pom poms to dangle from the heart.

Using sharp scissors, cut through the loops.

You should have what looks like a really shaggy pom pom.  It needs a hair cut.

Give the pom pom a good trim.  I need to warn you.  You can cut for what seems like forever to get it looking perfect.  That’s why I think perfection’s overrated.  Your pom pom will be about 1″.  Leave on 6″ tail coming from pom pom.

Repeat the process and make a second pom pom.  Get out your broom.

Next for the heart:

Trace your two hearts onto freezer paper.  I used the outside and inside edge of the cookie cutter.  My outside heart is about 2 1/4″ wide and the inside heart is about 1 3/4″ wide.

Iron the freezer paper template onto your felt.  Make sure the waxy side is facing down toward the felt. You will be making two red hearts and one smaller pink heart.

Cut out the heart.

Peel off the freezer paper.  Using the freezer paper heart template, make a second red heart.

Repeat the process to make the smaller pink heart.  Now you should have two red hearts and one smaller pink heart.

Blanket stitch the pink heart to the first red heart.

Now for the second heart:  Clip the back twice for a pin to be inserted later.

Like so.

Tie the top of the two tails of the pom poms together.  Clip the yarn at the top close to the knot.  On the second heart with the slits, using a zigzag stitch, sew the pom poms to the heart.  I made sure my pom poms came out on either side of my heart.

Place the two hearts together with the strings from the pom poms sandwiched in between and stitch around using a straight stitch, right along the outside edge of the pink heart.

And it’s done.  I stuck a safety pin through the slits to attach to the skirt.  And that’s it.

This project was easy and I absolutely love how it dresses up the skirt.