The creative bug has really bitten me lately. I can't seem to even think of giving a gift if it's not handmade right now. I know, kind of hard to find enough time - especially with school board elections in a couple of weeks. It's becoming a heated race for two seats on the board - one left vacant by yours truly. Yes, let's broach the subject. I did follow through on the statement that I was not running for reelection after serving on my suburban school board for almost 13 years and as president for seven. Now I'm down to only a few weeks left 'til my last board meeting. I feel a new dawn coming with freedom on the horizon.
Perhaps I'll blog more about that later, but for now I want to tell you about a little gift I made for a friend's birthday. A few weeks ago, at our Valentine's day church activity with the 12 and 13-year-old girls we stitched little felt heart-shaped brooches or pins. Since then, I guess I had an unfulfilled desire to actually give one a serious effort. Here we go.
The buttons I chose were in a certain color palate. I don't know why, I just love these colors together. In the picture, I was picking through my teeny, tiny mother of pearl buttons to choose some for the centers of other buttons. I'm not very good at dating buttons exactly, but I know all of these are pre-50s with the exception of the blue one - which I didn't end up using. I really love the tiny yellow button on the white daisy. To give you an idea of size, that whole daisy is only about 5/8ths inch wide.
Next I laid out the buttons on a vintage piece of cream colored felt, wanting the shamrock to be prominent. This pin is all about the pink shamrock because it's for a daily-brooch-wearing friend named Erin who was born into a very Irish family the day after St. Patty's day. And because of that, every year she gets tons of green and themed gifts. I thought it might be nice for her to receive something that wasn't green for a change. Yet the vintage pink four-leaf clover is still a nod to her love of all things Irish.
After a quick check on the net for a diagram on how to embroider leaves - I did a few lazy daisy stitches on a stem. Add a couple of French knots, fasten the buttons on, stuff it with three cotton balls, and finish it off with a simple blanket stitch using... you guessed it, vintage embroidery floss, add a pin back and voilá, it's a brooch!
Happy birthday, Erin.
I hope you have something to wear this with!
Thank you so much Kathy! I loved the brooch before I read your blog and now it means even more to me. What a special and perfect gift!
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Erin, Larry said you wear a pin every day, so I thought of this. I'm so glad you like it. It was fun to make. Good luck this year with your new BIG decision!
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