Sewing Season Christmas Season is in full swing, isn’t it!?!
I don’t know about you, but the craziest gifts to come up with are not for family members or friends … but for the millions of SIX teachers I get to give gifts. I am already pretty close to being out of budget for all gifts…so what’s a mom to do???
COVERED BUTTON PUSHPINS – BAM!
These are really super easy and super cheap – yet they really make people smile! I have already delivered 5 of the 6 of these gifts, so I’m speaking from experience when I say that they don’t look like cheapo gifts – and the recipients are pretty stoked!
Here’s how to make them…
In addition to buttons to cover and thumbtacks , you'll need something to remove the shanks. I prefer to use one of these jewelry plier thingies. I have no idea what it's called but here's a photo. For gifts, I think 4 buttons should be the minimum. Give as many as you want, but 4 is a nice gesture. =)
Just grab the shank of the back of the button with your plier thingy and pull. Sometimes you have to kind of jiggy it a bit! Just do whatever you have to do to pull that out!
You'll end up with this - a button back and a loose shank. You can throw that shank away!
Now simply cover your button as usual. If you need a tutorial for that, go here.
Now you're ready to glue your tacks tot he back of your button. I prefer to use these heavy duty home decorator pushpins, but regular thumb tacks work too. (If you use a button larger than 3/4", I'd recommend these heavy duty ones b/c the smaller ones look pretty wimpy)
Put a dab of hot glue in the center of the button back, and then push your pushpin right in there. EASY PEASY HUH!?!
You'll get something like this ... except yours probably will not be blurry!
To up the wow-factor for the gift, just grab some cork squares from your hobby store. Cut them in half to get two small cork rectangles. Insert your pushpins and add a fun tag. done.
You can see my first five sets here. I put them inside little fun cellophane bags. It was really a fun project to make and to give. I am fairly certain Ellie and Rosamund’s teachers felt loved.
Here’s the breakdown:
Cost: 5 covered buttons will cost you about $1.50. Cork squares – about 25 cents when cut in half. Thumb tacks – about 10 cents. Fabric – SCRAPS so free! Total cost (at most) per gift is under $2. LOVE THAT!
Time: about 10 minutes per gift…depending on how crazy those shanks are to remove.
I hope you’ll make some …you probably have these materials on hand already!
Merry Christmas Sewing Season!!!
PS: We made these at our Craft Crowd’s Make It Merry Christmas… head on over to their blog to see more photos! (If they’re not there, check back – I’m looking for my camera uploader thingie!)
