Treasure! (plus a super simple DIY)

Yesterday was a joyful day! My Mum allowed me to raid her button stash and I was not dissappointed! Who doesn't love something shiny, and vintage, and free?!

So delighted was I after my treasure hunt that I couldn't resist coming home and making something right away.

I felt inspired by these funky little guys:

I don't know if it was because of their bright colours, but something about them spoke to me.

So, for today's DIY, you will need: Two quirky buttons, a pair of earring blanks, strong glue, and something to cut off the back of the buttons (I used pliers as it's all I have, but if you have jewelry nippers they would probably be a better choice).

My reason for not going out and buying jewelry nippers? I DON'T NEED THEM! Honestly, the number of times I've seen someone rush out and spend good money on a piece of kit when something that they already have at home would work just as well drives me crazy!

Step 1: Clip off the shanks from the backs of your buttons.

If you are using pliers, I then recommend filing the back of the button down a little to make it flat. Repeatedly rubbing over this part of the pliers...

..does the job just fine! Again, no fancy tools needed.

Step 2: Apply glue to the backs of the buttons and glue on your earring blanks.

Step 3: Allow to dry.

This is probably the easiest thing I've ever made, and the look super cute!

Total cost: 45p for earring blanks.

Total time spent: 5minutes + drying time.

DIY - Bow Tie Necklace

I like to mix things up. Most days, I'm a lover of ultra-feminine, pin-up fashion. But now and again, I find myself drawn to an outfit that's a little more androgynous. Accessorising these outfits can be tricky though. Too masculine and you risk taking the look too far, but too feminine and you throw it off altogether. Recently, I have a new love in my life known as Tatty devine. The jewelry is youthful, fun and quirky, and this piece in particular caught my attention.

You can find it on sale HERE for £21, which, although is not a ridiculous price, can surely be beaten by a little DIY.

You will need: Black felt, needle and thread, scissors, a ruler, and some chain. I used two old wallet chains here (one with the lobster claw removed, one with it left on), but an old necklace would work.

I seem to have a lot of old wallet chains lying around the place from back in my college days. To me, no outfit was complete without a multitude of chains hanging from it back then!

Step 1: Along the shorter width of your sheet of felt, measure a strip around 5-6cm wide and cut.

Keep your newly cut strip, and set aside the rest of the sheet of felt for another day, you won't be needing it for this make.

Step 2: From your newly cut strip, along the shorter width again, measure 1-2cm wide and cut.

You should be left with 2 pieces of felt resembling this:

Step 3: Take your longer piece of felt, fold both ends in to the centre and stitch in place. These stitches won't be seen, so they don't need to be neat.

Step 4: Scrunch up the middle of your felt piece as tightly as you can to form a bow shape. You may need to do this a couple of times to get a cute shape that you're happy with. You can also choose to add a stitch through the middle here if you want to stop it from opening back out during the next step.

Step 5: Now choose which side of the bow will be the front, take your smaller piece of felt, and lay it over the centre of the bow.

Step 6: Turn the whole thing over, pinch the strip around the back, and sew in place.

Step 7: Still on the back of your bow, stitch the chains to the top corners on either side. You will need to add quite a few stitches to get it to hold.

Finished!

As I've worked out with a previous project, the felt costs 15p a sheet, and I used about a third of a sheet here. As I had the rest of the components at hand, I didn't have to spend any more, but even if you had to go out and buy the chain, you could probably do this whole thing for less than £1.50. That's a bargain in my book!

Total cost: 5p
Total time spent: 15 minutes.