"It takes wisdom to have a good family, and it takes understanding to make it strong." - Proverbs 24:3


Sunday, October 11, 2009

Pacifier Clips

It has been a while since I've posted a project and this one has been sitting in my blogger que. Mason likes his pacifier when he's getting sleepy but he won't fall asleep with it in his mouth so we use it most when we're out for our evening walks or in the car. We have one pacifier clip and it works okay. The clip part isn't the greatest.

I saw this stinking cute owl pacifier clip on Give Away Today and it was all I could do not to order one! Okay so it was only $6.75 (around $8 after shipping and a 15% discount) but I was going to wait a day to see if I won the giveaway first. It figures that that evening I went to Joanne's for fabric and happened across some super cute adhesive backed ribbon that looked like the ribbon in that stinking cute owl pacifier clip. Of course my next thought is, "I bet I could make that..."

If Tage had a nickel for every time he has heard me say that he could finally buy the flatscreen TV he has always wanted!

At any rate, here's what I did...

Gathered the ribbon, my sewing kit, some eco-felt and a hot glue gun.

Purchased snaps along with the ribbon at Joanne's to use to secure the clip to the pacifier. The most time comsuming part of this process was sewing the snaps onto the ribbon! Before doing that though, I cut a 16" length of ribbon, peeled off the backing, and folded it in half (so that it adhered to itself.) If I make these again I'm going to use a 20" length of ribbon because the 16" is border-line too short in the end.

At the other end of the ribbon you'll secure whatever you're using as the actual "clip" part of it. I opted for one of these hair clips. I made Mason's first and used hot glue to attach the clip to the ribbon-- failure. He pryed it off after a few uses. When I made the next one I sewed the thing on, which worked much better.

The fun part for most people, cutting out your felt shapes, comes next. This is always the hardest part for me because I do NOT have an eye for stuff like that. Heather, on the other hand... well that's why she has a shop and I do not. :) So if I can manage to fashion a somewhat owl-looking creature out of felt, you can too.

I handstiched some body parts on and added a little detail. If you double up the thread it stands out a bit more.

Then you take that cool fusible material stuff and iron it between your felt creature and another piece of felt cut roughly the same shape. You can tell by my picture above that when I say "roughly" I clearly mean roughly. Not pretty. I'm sure yours will be pretty though. Especially if your name is Heather. Or Julie. Ugh.

Thankfully (for me) when you finish ironing and the felt pieces are happily fused together your mistakes are forgiven and it looks just fine.

Now you hot glue the felt form to the end of the ribbon that has the clip. The hot glue worked well for this function. Mason has yet to pry them apart.

Here is what it looks like when it's finished.

There you have it, the finished pair-- don't make fun of my felt shapes! Someday I'll be good at the whole "creative" side of craftiness. Um, or not. Either way, this pacifier clip cost me less than $1 to make. Think of the possibilities with all the cute felt creatures (monograms? or fruit? vegetables maybe?) you can create to add to the end of the clip! Check out Cranberries and Capers for lots of cute ideas.

5 comments:

  1. Based on this post and your response to the 'my dog chewed up a couch cushion' email, I'm guessing a woman in her thirties owns an iron?

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  2. So cute! You should TOTALLY sell these! Very creative! And, I like the idea of using a hair clip as the clip.
    p.s. that is interesting that Mason doesn't fall asleep with the pacifier in his mouth! I have never heard of a baby like that before!

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  3. I know Mel, my kid is a weirdo. He'll take the pacifier as he is falling asleep but he spits it out when he's ready to actually sleep. So funny.

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  4. These are sooooo dang cute!! I love your background, the clips, heck anything with an owl on it!!

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  5. So cute! I love them. Such a good idea for Ella because once she has decided that she is "done" with the paci, it is across the room. :) Your shapes are perfect, but I agree, Heather is disgusting. :)

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