Fabric Earrings

Materials:

cotton fabric
thread
sewing machine
embroidery foot for sewing machine
interfacing
fabric paint
paintbrush – small, flat, stiff bristled
sushi dish
architectural templates (these are small templates with geometric shapes cut into them)
pencil
scissors
various beads
jewelry findings – headpins, French hooks
jewelers wire cutters
jeweler's pliers
T-pins
straight pins
small piece of stiff foam

Steps:

1. Choose fabric for earrings and cut a 3" x 7" piece.

2. Cut a piece of interfacing the same size.

3. Layer interfacing and fabric with fabric on top.

5. Choose thread to sew design and border on earrings and thread machine. Set sewing machine to free-motion sewing settings (drop feed dogs, put stitch length to 0, use embroidery foot). If you are unfamiliar with free-motion sewing, practice on a piece of fabric layered over interfacing.

6. Begin sewing with small stitches just inside the pencil lines. Sew toward the center three times around (Figure C). Repeat on other three drawn shapes.

7. Cut threads as close as possible.

8. Sew a squiggly line in the center of earrings (Figure D). Don’t worry about making them perfect.

9. Using scissors, cut out, leaving about 1/2-inch border around each shape.

10. Place cut-out shapes together, sewn side out. Stick straight pins through corners to help line up the shapes (Figure E).

11. Mark with a pencil the center of the top and bottom of the drawn shape. This mark will be where the sewing is interrupted to allow for easy insertion of the headpin when assembling.

13. With scissors, cut as close as possible to the outside row of sewing (Figure G).

14. Use a T-pin and insert through the earring where space was left for the headpin.

15. Put fabric paint (same or complementary color) in a sushi dish and dip paintbrush in paint.

16. Hold earrings with the T-pin and paint around the edges (Figure H).

17. Stick the T-pin in a piece of stiff foam until the paint dries. You can speed drying with a hairdryer.

18. Paint a second coat and let dry.

19. Choose beads to embellish earrings.

20. Put two beads on each headpin and then push the headpin through the fabric earring. Add another bead.

21. Using jewelers tools, cut the headpin (if needed) and make loop in the top of headpin (Figure I).

22. Attach to a French hook.

Website: morrisgalleries.com