Thursday, June 23, 2011

Yo-yo nuts: how one yo-yo sparked my sewing insanity. (tutorial)

                          


                            My first encounter with a yo-yo was an old blanket my mamaw had. It was a hundred or more of these beautiful yo-yos stitched together making a blanket with colors, textures, and patterns in a fanciful design.


                          
                           So here is my tutorial on the yo-yo for those who may not be familiar with this sewing staple.








First start with a small swatch of fabric. Find something to create your pattern on, I just used a throw away plate.  Trace and cut out.


If you've read a few of my blogs this fabric might look familiar to you. HERE is the blog it came from.




Anywho....



Cut the circle out and hand stitch a running or basting stitch the whole circumference of the circle. Make sure you don't tangle the thread.



This is what it looks like after you apply the stitch. Now it is time to GENTLY tug the thread.



Now you will have this little pouch. Primp it into shape and tie it off at the end.


And there you go! 

By the by...hand sewing is usually avoided because some find it hard to thread the needle. I knew how to hand sew and machine sew for awhile before I figured out what this little fellow was:


I had NO CLUE this was a needle threader. So if you are reading this and had no clue either, don't feel bad.    ;)




All you do is push the flexible wire through the needle eye and put one end of the thread through the wire. Then pull the flexi wire and thread through the eye. I have to give a big *praise the Lord and pass the biscuits* to this invention. 


Rambling, sorry. Back to the yo-yos. Here is my pile I made in one afternoon:



These little cuties have a 101 uses. But these specific ones were made for the locks of my special brown headed badger.


Using the yo-yos and a few extra crafting materials I made these:


She is SO happy I am including her BFF Cheetah in the blog. 


Here are some pink yo-yos I made and Cheetah sneaks in my picture again!


I will have a few more blogs showing the MANY uses of this awesome sewing project.


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I am partying with these awesome crafty gals: