DIY Shoe Clips

Happy New Year!!

 

I love this post Christmas blogging chance to write about the gifts I made and couldn't share with you all before I actually gave them away.  To have something in the works for a couple of months, to have photos on the hard drive just waiting, and then to actually send them across the pond to England way before Christmas before eventually seeing them be opened on Christmas Day!!

 

 

I made 3 sets of these bow shoe clips, after originally thinking I would make some cute felt hearts (like last year's Valentine's heart pocket sneakers) to attach onto shoe clips.  But on thinking about the gift recipients, and versatility of wearing the clips on any shoe, or with any outfit I went with these, still cute but maybe also 'prettier' shoe clips that hopefully my sister, Mum and sister-in-law would love!

 

Back in September I bought these great shoe clips from Buckle Boutique, ordered online from the Couture Embellishment shop on Etsy.  I did some research, and it generally seemed like everybody was recommending these clips.  I should have taken a photo of them but I guess you can see them on the link above.  The clips are metal and very sturdy, and then attached to a circle of black leather (I believe you can also get them in white).  This made for a really great way to attach my bows to with hot glue.  I'd definitely buy these again!

 

So between September and November when I actually made the clips, I did lots of thinking and research on the kind of clips I'd love to make.

 

A great inspiration was this post from 'Green Wedding Shoes' who gave me an idea of what dimensions I would be using.  Check out her post for the amazing tutorial (she has actual photos of the process unlike me! :-S ), and also another kind of clip - the flowers. 

 

For my Mummy dearest I made a cream coloured satin ribbon. 

 

 

Per shoe I had one long length ribbon and one medium length ribbon, glued the ends together to make loops.  Then, with a little glue on the inside of each loop (in the middle) press it down so it makes more of an sideways 8 shape.  Do this for each of the long and medium length ribbons.  Then, with a smaller length ribbon cut the ends to make a small indented triangle on each end of the ribbon. This will be the bottom piece.  Glue each of the layers together - the triangle cut ends on the bottom, then the longest loop piece, then the medium one and then, finally an even smaller ribbon piece to wrap around the middle and make the bow.

 

I actually had to cut down the leather circle of the shoe clip to fit it to the same size of the ribbon but that worked out fine, and you couldn't see the clip at all once attached to the ribbon.

 

I can't wait to try these bow clips with other ribbons as well, maybe some sturdier ribbons, or with different textures.  I went with a safe bet with these first ones, in a neutral but pretty colour that I think will go with shoes of my Mums.  Hope so anyway!

 



So for my sister and sister-in-law I wanted something to go with black flat shoes, nothing too crazy but still with a little pizzazz.  I went with some stiff black glitter felt I had.  It would show up on other black shoes, but still had a Christmassy/more glam feel than just plain black.  And the sturdy felt was SO easy to work with!!

 



Choosing to do a thicker width for these ones, I loved how chunky the bow looked when it was finished.

I did slightly shorter dimensions, and also finished the bottom felt piece edges with pinking shears instead of a indented cut triangle, and then for the wrap around top piece I also gave it the pinking sheared edge just because I thought it looked better than a plain straight cut! 

 



I REALLY want to make one of these pairs for myself!  Luckily my sister lives in England, and my sister-in-law is here in Canada so they will never wear them at the same time in the same place... But if I make and wear them too... Uh oh I guess then it could happen!!

 

An early DIY gift made, as we had to ship our English package by the beginning of December.  They each had their own adventures... my Mum's was opened as planned on Christmas Day, then for my sister (as she had to work on Christmas Day) - I actually got to watch her open them on Skype on Boxing Day... and then, even later on the 28th December my in-laws got to have their official "Christmas morning" with gifts after their power finally came back on after the ice storm in Toronto left them without for 5 days!



 



 

I loosely taped the shoe clips to these perfect scrapbook pieces of card from a pack I had already, they were perfect for this with the design at the bottom and room on the top to write a message!  Wrapped in tissue wrap they made it safely to England yey!

 

I'm totally going to make many more of these clips and definitely recommend them as an easy DIY project... maybe for some special people in your life on Valentine's Day!?

 

They can honestly be made into any kind of bows, other fun clips... Small versions for little girls, novelty felt designs maybe, or what about adding beading or more glitzy jewels... Other ideas I had were also using buttons...  Okay yeah, the possibilities are endless and I'm sure you have your own ideas too!  I'd love to see your clips if you make some :)  Shoot me an email with some pics!

 

Thanks for reading my first post of 2014!  Have a great year!

Yuletide Carols Being Sung by a Choir ♫

This past weekend the choir I sing with, the Cantabile Chamber Singers performed our first holiday concert since 2007!  Our usual yearly schedule means our first concert of the year doesn't always coincide with the holiday season, but we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to sing a December concert this year which of course meant a program filled with festive works as well as some other really great music.

We performed at a beautiful church in Toronto, and you can even see a snippet of our performance.  If you love 'Silent Night' click here and go to our Facebook page to see a video of the show :)  It was one of my favourites, so I'm very happy to be able to share it with you!

For this concert, our conductor and Artistic Director (and good friend of mine) asked if I might be able to make the choir some accessories.  In the past we had often coordinated colours, and always worn black concert clothes, but didn't have an official choir uniform that we had each concert.  So going with one of our favourites, a red colour scheme I got to work and set to making 18 choir accessories we could wear not only for this holiday season, but for every concert!

I chose to make pocket squares for the gentlemen, and flower pin brooches for the ladies.

Using music notation fabric I bought in JoAnns earlier this year I knew this would make a great bold black and white visual of music for the men. 

 

I started with 12 inch squares of the fabric, cut out with a rotary blade and trying really hard to keep everything straight and lined up!

In my first trial of the pocket squares I edged the fabric with ribbon after hemming the edges of the square.  However, on thinking about it, and finding the perfect double fold red binding tape I actually edged the squares with this instead, creating a really nice contrasting red colour which would pop out of the pocket once folded.  I love the colour choice my conductor wanted to go with and, there's no going wrong with red, black and white I think!

 



So, 9 pocket squares later, some ironing and folding done I was ready to tackle the flowers.

After ALWAYS seeing flowers online, how to create ruffled flowers, folded ribbon flowers, gathered fabric flowers, all kinds of easy DIY brooches or hair accessory flowers - I had actually never made one myself.  I've been too focused on the boys onesie bow ties and moustache pins/clips!

So, after a lot of research on some "how to's", some good old fashioned reading in sewing books etc I came up with a mix of methods which I felt I would be able to pull off (during an extremely busy week!)

I don't have many tutorial-esque photos I'm afraid as I was in a bit of a time crunch the whole time... but I'll try and describe what I did as I went along!

I started with a round of black felt that would be the base for the flower.  The bigger the circle, the more fabric you'd need, and the bigger flower you'll end up with.  I started trying a circle of this end of the whisk attachment but it ended up being too big.

 

Instead I ended up going with a very professional 2inch round fish food tub to measure the circles!

 

I had found this great ruffled trim in the perfect red for the flowers, cut initially into 12inch strips (although on making it I found 10-11inches to be long enough) and with my glue gun and button ready to go it was flower time!

 

Starting around the edge of the felt circle I applied the glue, and circled the fabric trim around the edge, winding my way in and applying glue as I went.  Circling inwards to the centre of the flower eventually coming to a point in the centre.

 

 

I glued a black button to the centre (kind of looks like a poppy I think too?).. and then attached a pin to the top middle of the back of the flower. 

 

Using a 2inch felt circle, with 10-11inches of fabric trim wound to the centre gave me a 3-4 inch diameter to the flower.  Perfect for attaching to our black shirts, jackets or dresses - and still big enough to be visible to the audience.



 

With enough pocket squares and flowers made, ready for our Saturday evening concert I posted it on my Facebook page and also on Instagram so everyone got a little sneak peek of what they'd be wearing, or seeing at the concert.  Are you following me yet?!  Click the links to always be first to know what I've been making or baking :)

 

 

 

As usual, my project was finished late in the evening, so the next day I made sure to get some shots of the accessories in the daylight!

I got some nice feedback about the choir accessories at the concert, and everyone looked really good wearing them - can't wait for our next concert in March to see everyone in them again!

 

Happy pre-Christmas everyone, hope you're enjoying some fun times, delicious foods and of course some festive music and songs ♫