Very Easy DIY Christmas Earrings

November 16, 2016 · 1 Comment

Very Easy DIY Christmas Earrings

It’s nice to have something to wear at Christmas.

However, buying new clothes can be expensive, and it doesn’t always seem worth it to buy something just for Christmas.

And as any of you who have kids will know, going clothes shopping with children in tow is not fun!

I love to make my own clothes, but this is time consuming and, in the run up to Christmas, time is in short supply, especially if you want to retain enough of your sanity to actually enjoy it!

An easier (and usually cheaper!) way to sort yourself out with a Christmas outfit is to Christmas up something that you have already, and this was the 9th challenge in The 12 Days of Christmas DIY Challenges.

You could applique something to an existing outfit (like I did with this interactive Christmas jumper), add a Christmassy trim, or find/ make/ buy Christmas accessories. If you’d like some more ideas for what you could do here, please take a look at the links at the bottom of this post.

The overall theme for The 12 Days of Christmas DIY Challenges was to make stuff for Christmas using what we have already, I decided to have a rootle about, and this is what I found!

About half an hour later, I had some lovely new DIY Christmas earrings!

If you’ve never made earrings before, don’t be put off. The only thing to remember is not to pull the jump ring apart. It needs to keep its circular shape, so separate the ends in such a way that it stays a circle.

How to Make Very Easy DIY Christmas Earrings

You Will Need:

Felt, beads or sequins, glue, 2 ear wires, 2 jump rings, a darning needle, paper and a pencil.

How to Make Christmas Tree Earrings

1. Onto a piece of paper, draw a simple Christmas tree. Folding the paper in half and then drawing will give you a symmetrical tree. Cut out the tree.

2. Using your template, cut 2 trees from green felt.

3.Take one of the felt trees and make a hole in the top of the tree with the darning needle. Open the jump ring using a twisting motion and thread it through the hole.

4. Thread the ear wire through the jump ring and close the jump ring. Do this for the other tree too.

5. Glue the sequins or beads to the trees.

Wait for the glue to dry. You have some new earrings!

Crocheted Wire Earrings

September 13, 2015 · 8 Comments

The other day I wanted to crochet but I also needed to make some earrings. So it got me thinking: would it be possible to mash the two things together and crochet some earrings? Preferably earrings that are neither enormous or woolly looking.

I had a go at crocheting some fine wire and the results were not enormous or woolly!
They were rather fiddly but they are very delicate light to wear, so well worth it!

They are made by crocheting three strands of wire, adding beads as you go, then plaiting the strands together.

I have included Amazon affiliate links for the materials. If you would prefer to buy a kit for making these earrings, complete with instructions, you can do so here.

How to Make Crocheted Wire Earrings

You will need: fine craft wire (1 metre will be enough to make 1 pair of earrings), a 2 or 2.5 mm crochet hook, 2 earring wires, 2 jump rings, wire cutters or pliers (or scissors will do but not your best pair! ), 10 beads including a mixture of 6mm glass beads, 8mm glass beads, crackle glass beads and faceted beads, and a selection seed or other small beads.

1. Cut 3 pieces of wire, each measuring 15cm. Twist the ends together a couple of times. 2. Slip one of the larger beads onto the twisted end. Thread the same end through a jump ring and twist to secure.

3. Using the handle end of the crochet hook, make a loop next to the bead in one of the strands of wire and twist it a couple of times.

4. Now we’re ready to start crocheting! A word of warning first though: crocheting wire is not like crocheting wool. It sounds obvious but the lack of stretchiness took me by surprise.
Crochet a couple of chains.

5. Slip a bead onto the wire. Then crochet one chain by taking the wire from the far side of the bead.

6. Continue to crochet chains and add beads. Try to space the beads out so that when you plait the strands together at the end, the beads are evenly spaced out.

7. Repeat for the other two strands.

8. Gently plait the three strands together.
9. Using the jump ring, attach the earring wire.Repeat for the other earring.

Tips

Use a metal crochet hook because the wire will probably gouge lumps out of a bamboo one!

As wire does not stretch, the loops in the chain need to be big enough. If they are not, wiggle the loop down the crochet hook to where it is wider then back up again.

If overworked, the wire will break, so be careful when twisting. If it does break, you may be able to reattach beads using extra bits of wire.

If the strands are difficult to plait, try pulling them gently to stretch the chains a little bit.

If you would like to buy a kit to make the earrings and not have to faff about buying lots of different beads when you only need a few, you can do so here.

Linking up here:

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Jewellery Bag Tutorial

January 8, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Jewellery bag made from upcycled fabric

Now that Christmas is finally over I can concentrate on making things that are not jam or dinosaur hats. I’ve made some tiny purses and some earrings, but the jewellery bags have given me trouble. It has to be lined because nobody wants to find that they cannot remove their favourite earrings from the little bag because they’ve got caught in the seams, but the biggest problem I’ve had is with the casing for the ribbon. I could not figure out a way to finish the ends of the casing tidily and leave a bit more fabric at the top. One option would have been to put buttonholes in near the top, only my sewing machine doesn’t do buttonholes. So I decided that the casing would just have to be at the top and I would have to do some embroidery or something on the front to make it special.

Here is how to make it.

You will need two pieces of fabric, one for the outer and one for the lining. You might want a fancy bit and a plain bit, or two plain bits in different colours, or a piece with a larger pattern and a second with a smaller pattern. Whatever you think looks nice. I’ve used poly cotton, some from my husband’s old shirts and some from some little bits and bobs I got from an ebay shop, http://stores.ebay.co.uk/The-Vintage-Fabric-Company?_trksid=p4340.l2563. They offer a weekly surprise bundle of little bits of fabric, some of it old and some new, for a reasonable price. They are also able to employ a young adult with special needs through the stuff they sell on ebay so you get a nice feeling that you are helping somebody, even if it is indirectly.

To get the size, I tore a page from my A5 notebook and folded it in half. This was the basic size for the bag, so to get the right size of fabric, the fabric needs to be twice as long as the paper template. When you have cut your two pieces of fabric, you will need to cut a couple of centimetres off the lining piece. This is so that it doesn’t get caught up in the casing.

The lining piece is smaller

If you want to embellish the front, do it now. For the bag in the first picture, I used a rubber stamp and some permanent ink, then attached a sequin and a bead. Maybe you could do some embroidery or applique, or just leave it as it is.

2. Put the lining on top of the outer, wrong sides together, so that the lining is in the middle of the outer.

Lining fabric in the middle of outer, wrong sides together

3. Now to make the casing. I have found that it is easiest to do this first. Leaving it until last resulted in a messy tangle of fabric, thread and sewing machine, and some bad language, so we’re going to make this first so we won’t get stressed with it. Take one corner of the outer fabric and carefully fold it in about 0.5cm. The folded bit will look like a long triangle. The pointy end of the triangle needs to include some of the lining. Pin and then sew. Repeat for the other three corners.

Corners folded and sewn

4. This stage is a little bit fiddly.

First of all you need to fold the outer fabric down to the top of the lining piece to make a hem.

Then, holding the fold, fold it down again so that the first fold is level with the pointy end of the triangle that you made in the previous stage.

Folded edge is level with pointy end of triangle, see?

Pin and sew, then repeat for the other end. Voila, casing complete! And hopefully no swearing!!

5. Now we make it into a bag. Turn it inside out so that the right sides of the fabric are together and the casing is inside.

Fabric right sides together

Adjust the fabric so that both bits of the casing are together with the outer on one side, folded in half with the right sides together, and the lining on the other side. We are going to sew the outer first, so make sure that the casing is inside the lining.

Outer ready for sewing with casing inside lining

Sew up both the open sides of the outer as far as the casing. Don’t sew the lining or you’ll find yourself in a pickle.

6. It’s almost done! Just the lining left to do now. Push the casing into the outer so that you don’t sew it when you sew up the lining. Make sure you leave a gap of about 3 cm at the folded end of one side so that you can turn it the right out.