Button safety pin flower

Inspired by the post on HandMakeMyDay, I made these flower pins with safety pins, buttons and crafting wire.

Felt Flower Pin

Here is a pin I made from some felt scraps. If you want to know how it is done, head over to Infarrantly Creative!

The Felt Babushka Pin Step-by-Step

Following the post earlier this week, I a, going to show you step by step how the Felt Babushka Pin was made.

Firstly you need 3 templates for body, head scarf and face.

Using different colors for the 3 components, cut out felt pieces. You need two for the body.

Arranging face, head scarf and front body piece, sew the face on with white thread.

Cut two pieces of black zigzag ribbon.

Sew the two ribbons on the body, tugging the ribbon ends under the head scarf part.

Using red thread, sew on the head scarf bottom edge. While you're at it you can embroider a mouth with the red thread.

Embroider the eyes and, using green thread embroider a flower stem on the belly. As a blossom you can add a small glass bead.

Now you can start to sew the back on. When you are 2/3 around the perimeter, you can fill cotton into the plush pin.

Finish off the seam.

Now you can add the pin on the back.

And you are done!

The Babushka Felt Pin

One fast and cute project: I made a babushka brooch made with felt, cotton filling and two small glass beads for the flowers on the belly.

More Nine Lives of Cats buttons

Hello there! I just whipped up a batch of 40 mm brooches with black and white print.

I moved the safety pin on the back a bit up, so the brooch hangs better when pinned. 

The return of the 40mm brooch

Hello there, it's me again! I am still working on my approach to the fully DIY brooch. Here I took the polymer base and glued flannel fabric on it with two motives stenciled on it. I used fabric paint and a hand-cut stencil to apply a "9" and the silhouette of a cat. 

The border is again lined with felt.

Evovling the brooch approach

I am strating to like the brooch approach. With the few polymer bases I made in one batch I am going on with  the creation of new ones. In this one I added pearls and wire.

Another pin

Hello there. I just post a picof another pin, which is plaid flannel fabrics. Nothing fancy, but a basic to build upon.

Emboidered Fabric and Felt Brooch

Going further with the brooch line, I added embroidery to the mix. Again on the polymer base, I glued the embroidered fabric and finished off with the felt border.

Things I consider for the next steps: get a smoother back of the polymer base and try to stamp the URL of this blog into the back. Maybe I can also substitute the polymer with salt dough, to make the products more environment friendly.

Felt Brooch

I am still going on slowly with the manufacture of brooches as a main line of a future product. Here I kept the polymer base and glued felt on it. With a hole puncher I made a holes in the green felt and filled those holes with disks punched out of red felt. I discovered that I can very easily manufacture a felt border, so the polymer will not be seen when worn.

After doing this, I added a border to the first brooch I made.

A fabric scrap brooch

In the quest for the direction my crafting should take I decided to follow the path of lapel pin / brooch manufacturer. Here is the latest creation. The brooch consists of scrap fabric and a felt leave, glued to the brooch base.

The base of the brooch is made of polymer clay. This allows me to add directly the safety pin and use different forms and sizes for the pin.

Tutorial: The Flower Pin

Today I show you how to make a cheap and fast project: A flower pin.

This tutorial is based on the tutorial of CraftSanity which you can find here, to which I want to give full credit here. Instead of a dandelion we will make a red flower and we are going to add leaves to the stem.

What you will need:

• green wool
• red wool (or the color you want the blossom to have)
• a fork
• a safety pin
• a paper clip
• scissors

1. Cut a piece of red wool and put it between the middle tines.

2. Now weave between the tines with your red wool. From one side....

... to the other side.

Continue until you have no space left

3. Take the ends of the string between the middle tines and make a knot (a knot whoch you can still pull tight) around all your loops you made.

4. While tightening your knot push the loops of the tines.

5. Pull the knot tight and secure with a second knot. Cut off the dangling string ends.

6. Take the paper clip and bend it open.

7. Insert the "pack of nooses" into the hook and bend it shut.

8. Now, take the green wool and start wrapping it around the paperclip.

9. When you have wrapped a bit make a small loop. This will become a leaf.

10. Continue wrapping around....

... and make a second loop. Wrap down to the end of the paperclip.

11. Bend the end of the paper clip and start wrapping upwards.

12. Take your open safety pin and hold it on the back of the flower.

13.  Wrap the string around the pin. Take care not to wrap in your leaves.

14. Now knot the wool tight and cut off. To give the flower a more "natural" look, you can bend it lightly.