Fabric Friday: Valentine Zippers

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Funky Monkey Mall

Do you feel a theme here? I am having so much fun. Last night someone from church brought me a whole bag of zippers. I was like a kid in a candy shop. I won’t show you the bag because I have already moved everything and used some. I forgot to take a picture.
Well I decided it was time to do some for Valentine’s Day. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. Well, I still have 10 days. I was digging through my red bin.

Remember: Never throw anything away. The paisley was my mother’s dress. I found an old worn out sweater that belonged to my daughter. In southeast Texas we don’t have many of those. The few sweaters we have don’t wear out because we hardly wear them. I say that on a night that we are expecting snow, but that is a rare occasion. They have closed school because it might, possibly snow. They interrupt The Bid Bang to say the radar reports snow in the upper atmosphere. Anyway, here is the sweater:
I cut a piece of freezer paper and ironed it on the back side. Then I sewed around that piece and cut it out.

I drew a heart and stitched around that.
  
Next I cut out a larger heart. I wanted the edges the ravel or fray, but I did not want the whole thing to come apart.  When I pulled off the paper, I had a nice heart to start decorating.
 
I found some lace and some trim and just started to create.
On each one I put a zipper flower.
Earlier I gave these written directions. I still did not take pictures.

1. To make a flower cut the stop off the bottom and upzip. This removes the pull. [I am saving them because I live by the mantra, "Never throw anything away!".]
   
2. I now have two parts of the zipper. The size of the flower depends on the length of the zipper.
   
3. After much experimentation, my favorite flowers begin by rolling the zipper end that I cut off the stop. I use hot glue to tack it as I roll about 1" of zipper. That is not exact, just roll until you like it.
   
4. Now I run a gathering stitch along the cloth edge. I use beading thread, just because I have it. I stitch about 3", pull it up and tack the gathers.  I do this by hand, not on the machine.
   
5. The next part is just personal preference. I gather a bit and then glue it around the base center roll. Gather some move and glue.
   
6. When I get to the end of the zipper, tuck the end under and glue.
   
7. Now I decide if I want to add more zipper to make the flower larger or stop.
   
8. When I am happy with the flower, I cut a small round of felt and glue it to the back side.
   
9. I can get creative and add feathers or tassel leftovers or lace or whatever else I can find. Sometimes the craziest things make the best background. I made some yo-yos to go behind the zipper flowers.
   
10. The last step is to decide how it will be worn. I glued some to headbands, some to elastic, some to clips and some to pins.

These are the ones I made tonight. I have not decided whether they will be headbands or hairclips or broaches.
          

Aren’t they sweet?

Here's where I link: