I have been seeing cute little fabric yoyos everywhere lately, from hairclips and hats to t-shirt embellishments. I have heard that people used to make whole quilts out of them! I learnt to make them about ten years ago, and thought I'd share. They are so easy you don't even know how to sew, and you don't need a sewing machine.
1. You need: a piece of fabric, something round (I used a tea cup which gives a pretty small yoyo), a pen, a pair of scissors, and needle and thread.
2. Trace around your round thing with a pen
3. Cut out your circle
4. Take your threaded needle, and tie a knot in one end. With the fabric the wrong side up, turn the edge over and straight stitch, turning the fabric edge down as you go. Try not to make the stitches too small, and it's ok if they aren't exactly even.
5. When you have stitched all the way around, take the thread and gently pull so that the fabric gathers and the hole closes.
6. Tie both ends of thread together, then flatten out your yoyo.
And you're done! You can do different sized yoyos and stack them (just stitch through the middle to keep them together), or stitch a button to the top to make a little flower like I did with this one.
Great tutorial! I love to make these when I sit in the lounge of a night watching TV - it keeps my hands busy and they look gorgeous on anything!
ReplyDeleteI call them Suffolk Puffs and my English MIL told me a story about the wonderful quilts ladies made with them in war time using old clothing and linen - they were fabulous recyclers back then, it's just a shame it took our generation so long to catch on :o)