Crafts Unleashed

This week, we’re featuring fabric crafting here on CraftsUnleashed, and I thought I’d share a great little craft you can whip up in a jiffy- Yo-Yos!

What is a fabric yo-yo? No, friends, not the toys with the string you used to play with as a kid- FABRIC ones! They are circles of fabric gathered into rosettes:

You can make a yo-yo by cutting a circle of fabric and gathering around the edge in a running stitch, but really the easiest way to make a yo-yo is by using these handy tools from Clover.

The instructions are in the packages, but really it’s a simple as placing your fabric in the template and cutting loosely around, stitching through the holes as indicated, removing the back of the template, and then gathering the threads to make the rosette. (There’s a handy You-Tube video demonstrating them HERE.)

So to make a hair clip, you’ll need:

• Small Yo Yo maker by Clover (Item CL8700)
• Medium Yo Yo maker by Clover (Item CL8701)
• Button or fabric-covered brad
• Needle & thread
• scrap felt, 2 pieces 2 inches square (Item
• scrap fabric, 2 pieces 5 inches square (I like to use my daughter’s worn-out sundresses for this!)
• snap hair clips (item 1944-91)
• Fabri Tac Glue (Item 1123-34)

To make your hair clip, make a medium sized yo yo, and a small yo yo of coordinating fabric. Stack the button, small yo yo, and medium yo yo and sew all three together using a double thickness of thread. Knot at the bottom, under the medium yo yo, and secure with a dot of glue.

Next, cover the top part of your snap hair clip with felt. If you’re fussy, you can trace around the clip on a sheet of paper and then cut it out, but I’m pretty OK with eyeballing it and cutting through 2 layers of felt. The felt should extend 1/8 inch all the way around.

Then you’ll center your clip on one of the felt shapes, and mark where the prong attaches with a permanent marker.

Next snip a small slit in between the two dots.

You’ll slide the prong through the hole, and apply Fabri-Tac to the top.

Place your other piece of felt to the top of the clip (while it’s still open) and then let it dry.

Lastly, glue your yo yo stack to the felt. It should hold securely!

As a variation, use an i-Top to make fabric-covered brads. (Read our post on the i-Top HERE.) Then you can use the prongs to hold the yo yo stack together and avoid sewing one step:

Fabric-Covered brad made with an i Top holds it together.

Disclosure