Summer Fabric Craft: Quick and Easy Handmade Arts Project for Kids

School vacation always seems to sneak up on me. For some reason, regardless of how many end-of-the-year concerts I go to, no matter how many times the seniors speed past my house honking their horns in celebration, when mid-June arrives I am always scrambling around to find easy crafts to make that will keep my girls busy when they don’t have school to structure their (and my) days.

ruby wrigley creates handmade arts and crafts
Ruby Wrigley, 10, models her Fabric Circle Necklace,
an easy handmade arts project for kids.

Fortunately for me, they are now teenagers, old enough to have jobs, do volunteer work, and (mostly) entertain themselves during the summer. So the summer vacation panic no longer hits me as hard as it once did.

But I still keep my eye out for handmade arts projects. First, because my girls still like crafts and gift making ideas they can do on their own. And also because I can forward these handmade arts and crafts ideas to anyone who has to keep kids occupied. Paying it forward, so to speak.

This Fabric Circle Necklace is the perfect project. Not only is it easy to do, but it was designed by and for a tween, 10-year-old Ruby Wrigley of Warrenton, Virginia.

I spied Ruby’s project and her studio in the Summer 2012 issue of Studios magazine.

Ruby says, “This necklace is really easy to make and would make a fun gift for your bestie (best friend).”

Fabric Circle Necklace by Ruby Wrigley

Materials:

  • Sewing machine
  • Scissors
  • Disappearing ink marker
  • Scraps of fun fabric
  • Stiff interfacing
  • Ribbon, 24″
  • Bottle cap or something else circular to trace. I used a medicine bottle cap (ask mom first)

Directions:

fabric circles for handmade arts and crafts necklace
Fabric circle sandwiches
stitched across.

1. Trace 20 circles onto 10 different cotton fabrics, cutting 2 from each fabric.

2. Trace 10 circles on a piece of stiff interfacing. Cut all the circles.

3. Place 1 piece of interfacing between 2 pieces of fabric, like a sandwich.

4. Sew 6 lines on the circle in a snowflake-type pattern. It doesn’t have to be super neat so don’t worry. It should look like the circles in the image. (Above right.)

5. Trim around each sewn circle so it looks nice and neat.

6. When you have sewn them all, lay them out like I did in the photograph.

stitching fabric circles for handmade arts and crafts
Stitching the fabric circles together.

7. Sew the circles in a row: As you sew across one, quickly put the next one under the machine and keep sewing. Go back and forth a couple of times so it is really secure.

8. Do this with the other rows. It’s really easy!

9. Cut your ribbon into two 12″ pieces. Sew each one onto the back of the 2 top circles.

10. Cut all the annoying threads

All done!

You could simplify this project further for a younger child (using felt circles and a glue stick, for example) or make it more involved for older kids. Not only are these easy gifts to make and trade, but these Fabric Circle Necklaces use up a lot of your fabric scraps. You get to keep the kids busy and winnow down the piles of fabric in your studio as a bonus.

There are a lot more ideas for making fabric and mixed-media craftsand creating kids’ art spacesin the Summer 2012 issue of Studios, available now.

P.S. What are your favorite fabric or mixed-media crafts to do with kids? Share below!

Categories

Blog, Easy Gifts to Make, Fabric Art

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