If you've ever read my blog, visited my Flickr stream or stolen into my workroom when I wasn't looking (well someone has to be making all that mess...), the odds are you'll have noticed I'm faintly obsessed with buttons. I suspect I'm not on my own here, so thought I'd share a cute, stamped, button-based idea that you can use in all sorts of different ways. It also works with a whole range of Banana Frog stamp sets, so you can leave Santa's gift options wide open over the coming weeks.
The basic principle is to stamp your impression onto fabric, then use the fabric on a self-cover button. If you haven't tried them before, self-cover buttons are really straightforward to work with, and come in a range of sizes to suit your stamps and chosen project.
To start off with, pick a stamp and apply your chosen ink colour (make sure it's permanent or fabric-friendly ink if you're going to add the buttons to clothing, so they'll be washable). Press down onto ironed, crease-free fabric, making sure to leave space around all sides of the image.
Cut out a circle around your stamped impression, using the size guide on the back of your button packaging.
Sew a line of running stitches around the edges of the fabric. (Mine are green, so you can see them more clearly, but it doesn't actually matter as they'll eventually be hidden anyway.)
Pull the thread ends to loosely gather up the circle.
Slip the top section of your coverable button inside the gathered fabric, and pull the threads more tightly. With the fabric gathered neatly and snugly around the button, knot the thread ends to secure.
Snip off the excess thread and then, to hold everything in place and cover over the raw fabric edges, snap the second piece of the cover-button into position.
The whole process is really quick and easy, especially if you're making a few and can set up a little production line. It's a great way of using up small scraps of fabric (lightweight cottons work best) and, as I mentioned before, the finished buttons can be put to all sorts of uses. Here are mine, all finished and ready to go:
And here are just a couple of finished project ideas.
Glued to a simple hair clip (the stamp used for this is from the Matryoshka set) . . .
. . . or a ring blank (I love the funky fifties look Shimelle's Background dots give this).
Stamps from Fireworks and Superlicious used to decorate a plain beanie.
And more Superlicious, threaded onto regular paperclips, and glued at one end to secure (smaller versions make pretty embellishments for cards and scrapbook pages, while larger ones can be used as bookmarks).
Lastly, with Christmas in mind, I made a fancy corsage (the 'E' is from the Rosecube alphabet), which can be used either as a brooch, or to decorate a present.
Don't forget to let us know if you give this or any other Project of the Day a shot, either in the comments below, or by posting a photo in the Flickr group.
Until next month, Froglets.
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