I’ve seen lots of fabric covered letters around recently and have wanted to have a go myself – this weekend I finally got around to it! It is a project that you could complete on an evening after work (if you need a weeknight craft fix, as I often do!) and would make a great decoration in your home or perhaps a wedding gift. The possibilities are endless! I bought my letters from RE (if you haven’t seen my post about this amazing shop, click here) and raided my fabric stash – a fat quarter is more than enough for a letter. Tom chose this funky grey fabric with little buttons on it for his ‘T’, and for my ‘C’ I went for pink (obviously!) as I thought that the circle pattern would tie them together.

I decided against covering the ampersand for 2 reasons: the first was that I couldn’t decided on a fabric that matched the other two, and the second reason is that it would probably be really difficult…I’m pleased with the end result and think I made the right decision!

You will need:

Card 3D letters
Mod podge and a paintbrush
Some fabric (iron out the creases before you get started!)
Sharp scissors and a pencil

Step 1

Lay out some fabric and place a letter on top, and then lightly draw around the letter with a pencil. Trim the fabric so that you have a 2 cm border around the edge of the letter that you have just drawn. For this letter ‘T’ I cut out one T shape and a larger square so that I could cut some long strips to be able to cover the sides (but that’s in a later step!). For some letters, like the ‘C’, you’ll need to make sure that the fabric is the right way up for the front and the back (as shown in the second photo).

Step 2

Paint some mod podge onto one side of the letter and stick it onto the fabric. Trim the edges as required so that the fabric will fold neatly around the edges of your letter. For curved letters, you’ll need to snip around the edges at regular intervals so that you can fold the fabric around the curves more easily.

Step 3

Repeat step 2 with the other side of your letter. Cut out some long strips of fabric the same width of the letters, then paint on some more mod podge on the sides before sticking on the fabric.

Ta-dah! That’s it – you just have to leave them to dry now before displaying them in a suitable position

The post Fabric covered letters appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

I love embroidery and I love badges, so this little project is perfect as it combines the two! It’s also a really good way of using up fabric scraps – I hate having random little bits of lovely fabric left over with no idea what to use them for. I’ve made these badges using coverable buttons – the small one is 29mm and the larger one is 38mm – and they are so versatile. I’ve got lots of ideas for these badges, so look out for more projects to come soon!

You can get a tool to make coverable buttons, but the biggest size on the tool is 29mm. I was worried that this would be a problem, but the larger buttons are really easy to pop together so it doesn’t matter. When choosing fabric small patterns work best, and I’ve chosen contrasting colours so that the embroidery stands out. To mark out the letters you could use an invisible pen (mine disappeared too fast for me to be able to see it!) – here I used some parchment paper and embroidered through it as I find this much easier. This paper is actually baking parchment but it makes amazing pattern paper – this is my top sewing tip!

You will need:

Metal self-cover buttons (I found these on Ebay)
Parchment or pattern paper
A pencil
Some fabric and embroidery thread
Sharp scissors
Needle and pins
Tweezers
Some brooch backs
Superglue

Step 1:

Remove the wire from the inside of the front of the button, and draw around it on the the parchment/pattern paper, leaving a bit of room around the edge. Then write your word(s) so it fits inside the circle (don’t go too close to the edge – and keep your word choice short enough for your button size!). Cut out the paper and pin onto your fabric.

You may wish to use an embroidery hoop to keep the fabric steady – I find it easier to hold a smaller piece, so I cut it out. Do whatever works for you!

Step 2:

Thread the needle with your chosen colour cotton and then sew over the letters. I prefer to use a split stitch, but you could use any you like as long as the letter is clear.

Make sure that when you change a thread, tie a knot and trim the excess as close as you can to the fabric.

Step 3:

Carefully remove the parchment paper. You may need to hold on to your stitches at times! Use tweezers to remove any small, tricky pieces.

Step 4:

Place the fabric face-down on a flat surface, and then line up the front of the button over the embroidery. Hook the excess fabric over the back of the button and adjust as necessary. Once lined up, place the back of the button over the top and pop into place.

Step 5:

Very carefully, use the superglue to attach the brooch back to the button, making sure that it is horizontal in relation to the embroidery. Make sure that you don’t get any on your fingers! Leave to try for a few minutes.

There will be a little bit of discolouration with the superglue, but it is on the back so who will know?! I’ve tried loads of other glues and none of them hold, so this is the best option by far!

That’s it – as soon as the glue is dry, your badge is ready to wear! There are so many options with this project, and the possibilities are endless. I have some others in the making but I can’t share them with you just yet…you’ll have to keep looking out for them!

The post Fabric button badges appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.