Butterfly Hair Barrettes & Answering A Few Questions
Good morning, everyone! I thought I would pop in today to share a set of butterfly barrettes I made for Tilly using the Petite Butterfly and Botanical Butterfly Details dies.
Now that things have quieted down a bit, I have a little time and space to do some of these projects that have been hanging out on my "to do" list. And I'm so glad because these turned out super cute! I used a palette of Taffy, Daffodil, Pixie, and Pistachio to create these butterflies. I just improvised the leaf and flower pattern using the flower and leaves from the Botanical Butterfly Details.
I used beads for the centers of the flowers and to add a "bud" to the leaf on the smaller, lower wings. I stitched the butterflies together completely before adhering them to gingham-covered alligator hair clips. I used E6000, but hot glue would probably also have worked.
You can see that Tilly is a big fan. Trying to take photos took a bit of bargaining. Never a dull moment.
Here are some tips in case you want to make some barrettes of your own:
1) Since these are meant to be worn and will get a bit more handling than a home decor item, you want to give them a bit of extra strength. Reinforce the felt with interfacing before die cutting. You may want to use a sheet of copy paper under your felt to give your die something to really sink its teeth into (so to speak). The extra thickness may also mean you want to have your metal shim handy. Paper shims won't be rigid enough for cutting.
2) You may also want to use extra adhesive to secure the extra long tail end of the butterfly's body. Just a dab will do.
3) If you don't have the Botanical Butterfly Details die, you can use floral sequins or other small die cuts to embellish your butterflies.
4) Not in the mood to fuss with embellishments? Try using patterned felt or reinforced fabric instead!
I hope those tips help!
I also wanted to answer a couple of questions we've gotten recently. First up, I've had a few questions about the Gathered Garden die and whether or not there is a video. There is not, but I am open to doing a photo tutorial if that would be helpful. In the meantime, I mentioned the method I used for assembly in the introductory blog post. You can see the full post HERE, but here's the most important bit:
"To create these flowers you simply sew a running stitch through the holes around the center (just once, no need to go around the holes twice) and then knot the ends together. I like to keep my ends long so I can use them to tie the flowers together or to sew them to my projects."
As for assembly, I just layered the two together (to get a double bloom) or used them individually. If I layered them, I would pull the threads from the top flower through the center of the bottom flower and then tie both together (or sew them through my project and then tie them on the back side). Same idea went for the beads and sequins I used as centers. I would sew down through the center and then tie all of the tails together.
I've also been asked several times about the release schedule and when there will be new products. I don't have a set schedule, but there won't be a new release for a few months (restocks will still occur regularly). Our whole household needs a little break, but there will definitely be some exciting new things heading your way this summer. I'll still be sharing some fun blog posts here and there though (just like today!) so don't be a stranger. Keep an eye out here, via newsletter, or on Instagram for updates. Thanks for stopping by today and I'll see you again soon!
I would also like to see a video of the gathered flowers! Are there instruction sheets to go with these dies? All of the photos shown are helpful too!
Hi! The butterfly hair clips are darling, and I’m inspired by your botanical decorations on the petite butterfly. I’ve been having so much fun with the new dies and will no doubt love the summer release. I keep coming up with ideas while I stitch and wonder if you could supersize the candy cane dies to make full size ornaments we could embellish with a sprig of holly. Also. the bunny die set has me wishing for a Santa mouse! Thanks so much for giving us all your creativity!!
The butterfly barrettes are so pretty – and even more so on your darling, lovely Tilly!
Just so you know: I absolutely LOVE X LOVE the dies I’ve ordered from you! Thank you for sharing your creativity that makes me feel creative!
~carol (from Canada)
I am loving all of the stitched dies that I received! As a visual learner, I, too, would benefit from photos or a video showing the gathered flowers.
I would love to see some photos of how to make the gathered flowers. I missed the detailed instructions sheets we usually get with the dies.