Pinwheel Appliques

fabric yo-yos

I saw these cute little things on a quilt once and thought they would be good for livening up some of my shirts!  I really don't know what these things are called, so I'm calling them pinwheels because that's what they remind me of.  Since I didn't know how to make these either, I did a little experimenting and figured it out on my own.  They are sooooo easy to make.  All you need is some fabric scraps, thread, and a needle!

If you want to make some of these for yourself, I'm posting a tutorial below.  These look good on clothes and could be used to decorate lots of other things too: bags, blankets, etc.

Step 1:  Trace and cut out circles from fabric.  I just used a cup and a pen to trace them.  And the best thing about these are that it doesn't matter if your circles are perfect- they still turn out great!

fabric circles

 Step 2:  Sew around the edge of the circle with a simple up-and-down stitch ( I really don't know the technical name for that stitch).

fabric yo-yos

Step 3:  Carefully pull thread to gather the fabric into a small bunch and tie off thread.

fabric yo-yos

Step 4:  Flatten out into a circle shape and sew it onto whatever you want!  Easy!

fabric yo-yos
fabric yo-yos

5 comments:

  1. Wow, that actually sounds easy enough for me to do! Now I just have to find the motivation. :)

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  2. I love it....sounds alot easier than the way I was doing it...thanks for the tip :)

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  3. Awesome...I hope you don't mind that I shared them on my blog: cherryl-ball.blogspot.com Because I love them and want to be able to get back to them...can't remember how to get back to great finds like this so I started a blog to remember them all. Thanks, Cherryl

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  4. Love your idea. I am going to make some glitzy ones to adorn a Christmas sweater. BTW, that stitch is know as a running stitch or gathering stitch where I come from :-)

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  5. They are known as yo yos where I come from

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