Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Sequins, Clearly Seen

Eyelet Outlet Sequins come in Round, Star-Shaped and Snowflakes, in a whole rainbow of colors. Usually they are the finishing touches on a holiday project, but I wanted to make them the center of attention this time! 


I cannot take credit for this concept, because I am sure I saw ornaments similar to the little tree on Instagram; but when I went back to find them, they proved elusive. The idea is pretty simple, though: cut two shapes out of clear plastic, fill them with sequins, and stitch them shut.


About the plastic: it needs to be sturdy but flexible! I cut up a heavy duty clear plastic sleeve like the kind used for storing craft dies. Speaking of dies, I used a medium sized heart and a medium sized star from two sets of nested dies. You definitely want to stick with simple shapes, and it's easiest to cut them one at a time and roll through the machine more than once.


About the sequins: you need to place them pretty much where you'd like them to be in the finished ornament, because they're not going to move about as much as in a shaker window. But you can't get them too near the edge or they will try to escape while you are sewing. And trust me, less is more! 

About the sewing: I machine stitched, but hand cranked the machine. Start and end at the top of the ornaments and leave long tails, so they can act as the hangers. I used the same white heavy duty upholstery thread for my bobbin and top thread. You can use a tiny piece of washi tape to secure one edge of the ornament while you start sewing, but it's kind of fiddly to remove. I found that holding the two shapes together and just working slowly and carefully was the easiest. 

My favorite thing about these little ornaments is that I got to use ALL the styles (and quite a few colors!) of Eyelet Outlet Sequins!

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