Thursday, March 22, 2012

Yo Yo Kanzashi Brooches and Pins Tutorial


I am well into my March challenge of making 2 kanzashi or yo yo's a day I have kept up pretty good and have already put many to use. This is just some quick tips for turning these fabric embellishments into brooches and pins.

Items you will need:
  • Flowers and yo yo's (of course) I have actually been using the Clover makers that make these super easy and loads of fun to make. Use method of your choice. My kanzashi's are 3-4 inches, yo yo's are 1.5-2.25 inches.
  • Buttons - I have exclusively used SHANK buttons
  • Felt - it was amazing how many fabric squares I found tucked into many spaces in my fabric stash, I think I found around 40 sheets, in many many colors. (yay for using things I already have)
  • Glue, I mainly have been using a low temp glue gun and embellisment glue, though I have had better results with the glue gun
  • Bar pins, I got both 3/4 inch and 1 inch size, if choosing just one I would get the 1 inch size first
I highly recommend pre cutting all felt into circles, and making the backing or pin in batches, if using multiple colors prep those too. The felt will not be seen but color coordinating is a nice touch.



I had this perfect size gold metal button that was the perfect template for trimming my felt circles to 1 1/4. Other sizes that worked was a quarter, I actually trimmed a little bigger around, about 1/8 th of an inch, this worked well for the 3/4 inch pins. A spice jar lid was nice for some of the bigger brooches, cut a few and see what size you like best.



Take your circle and fold in half, snip a triangle in the fold, when cut free this will make a little diamond, just use the tip of your scissors, really sharp will work best. About 3/4 inch from that just cut a slit

I stuck the pin side through this little diamond, and then moved it around to fit the clasp side through the slit.



Completed back, the left is a 1.25 inch square, the right is prep and sizing for a smaller quarter sized backing with the smaller pin.



Using glue gun generously apply glue, remember it will spread out so leave some space for the glue to move to the outside edge.

Stick down, make sure pin is positioned upright, (I had one end up sideways) and a centered as you can get, you will have a few seconds to do this, upright is key Be careful to not squeeze glue through the holes in the felt it can glue the pin and make it in-operable...yes, did this once too.

Putting on a button, to me this is really fun, maybe it is my epic button collection that mostly goes unused, but this is where you can really complete the look. It also sort of hides some of the un-eveness that might have occurred on the front.





Auditioning buttons, this is half the fun! I ended up with button number four.



Glue the button down. I used a low temp glue gun, you could also use embellishment glue which is intended to glue a porous (fabric) to a non porous (button) item. I found it too drippy and not as secure, I actually intend to test this more.

You can use this technique for kanzashi and yo yo's. I bend way back the petals, towards the front of the kanzashi or in the case of the yo yo's this would be the back.

I then fill that little circular area with the glue, an then some on the surrounding edges, you need to take into account your button. Obviously bigger buttons will hide more glue...I cannot stand to see any glue on the finished product so this is really important.

Then insert your shank button into the glue and close up the flower to engulf the shank, squish it down gently and twist if it has an orientation, again you have a few seconds to wiggle this as needed.

You can finish the back as detailed above, I will add that when adding pin to the back of the kanzashi it may be necessary to go back around the the felt and add additional glue to fully adhere circle. This is also a good time to flatten to the back your petals, you will have a few seconds to work the flower flat to the back.



I found really using the glue gun to be an excellent hold, I have tried pretty hard to pull off flowers from a few test pieces and not been able to do it.

These are the backs of the little yo yo's these will be giveaway items at a few upcoming spring events, so cute and easy to add to blouse or accessory...hint hint :)

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