Make a Button Ornament
Simple, pretty and reminiscent of naive craft styles of older times, these button ornaments are a great way to use up and display favorite buttons you've amassed. The ornaments can be used for the holiday season, for special events when decorating, as gifts for others or as special tokens for someone you care about. They could even be attached to a doll or toy you're making.
Steps
- Find buttons from button box or your collection. If you don't have any, odd buttons can usually be bought in bags from craft stores.
- For the other items needed, see "Things You'll Need" below.
- Freehand, draw a heart, star, tree or other decorative shape. Make the shape "long and skinny", rather than "short and squat". This helps the ornament to appear more naive craft in style. Unevenness in some shapes enhances their appeal, so don't worry too much about perfection.
- Cut out the paper shape and use it as the Make Quilt Templates.
- Pin the paper template to white felt and cut out two shapes for each ornament being made.
- Sew buttons in a scattered pattern over top of one layer. Use red and pink buttons for hearts, yellow and orange for the stars.
- For a tree, use green buttons with smaller multi-coloured buttons for the ornaments and a large brown button for the trunk. If the tree is quite long and skinny, you could hot glue a bit of cinnamon stick for its trunk.
- Use a running stitch or blanket stitch to sew both layers together, stuffing the ornament lightly before you sew it up completely. Add a loop or ribbon or twine for hanging and enjoy.
- Try other ideas. You can make sheep ornaments, using Make Cinnamon Stick Trees or matchsticks for the legs. You may need to hot glue the sticks into place prior to sewing the pieces together.
- Use white felt and beige buttons. If you want it to look brighter, put pastel buttons instead of the beige buttons.
Tips
- Buy a bag of assorted buttons to get a wider variety.
- White felt can be used in place of colored, if the colored felts are too bright for the project.
- These don't take too long to make and don't cost an arm and a leg either!
Warnings
- Always use care when working with scissors.
Things You'll Need
- Felt
- Paper and pencil
- Buttons
- Scissors
- Thread
- Needle
- Ribbon or twine to make loops
- Cinnamon sticks or matchsticks (optional)
- Hot glue
Related Articles
- Make a Button Pin
- Make a Button Wreath
- Design a Greeting Card with Buttons
- Make a Button Flower Arrangement
