I meant to post this over a month ago, but guess what? I had too many photos. And then Christmas stuff started happening and I didn't do anything about it. I might have it fixed. We'll see. Eventually I need to just print off my family blog and then delete posts.
Anyways. Back to the project. I made some jingle bell shakers for children to hold and shake and have fun with. It's been a month or so since I made them so now I can't remember the dimensions of the rectangles I cut out. But You'll get the general idea.
Long rectangle, hem both short ends.
Fold in half, right sides together, and sew down the length of the rectangle. I think I used a safety pin and pinned it to one side of the tube and pushed it through the tube to turn it...then find yourself a cheap shower curtain ring. You can buy a pack of 12 at Wal-mart for about 2 buck. Probably a bit less.
Thread the tube onto the shower curtain ring and keep threading until you get to the end.
When you reach the end, hook the shower curtain ring so it is secure. Then hand stitch the two ends together so you can't see the ring.
Then hand sew some jingle bells onto the fabric. My jingle bells are pretty small. They aren't very loud which may be good if you're just in your house. I'd use bigger ones if I was doing it again because I made them for the little dance class I teach. We used them for our Christmas dance but we couldn't hear the bells over the music because they were so small. But I already had this size from a preschool project I did so that's the size I did.
Make sure you use thick thread or really sew the bells on. My little 3 year old dancers kept sticking the bells in their mouths and chewing through the thread! Kids never stop surprising me. Just when I think I have it all figured out, they show me I don't. So secure those bells well so no one chokes on them.
I like the idea of using the shower curtain ring to give it more shape. I bought the stuff to make some jingle bell bracelets for Jacob a while back, just intending to sew the bells to some belting and then put velcro on the ends. However, one day when I wanted to keep Jacob occupied while sewing, I let him play with the bells in a container. It became a favorite, but the bracelets never got made and now I can only find about 6 of the bells (out of about 30)! I think about half are stuck deep down in the couch never to be seen again.
ReplyDelete(Oh, and a tutorial I had read said to put a little hot glue on the edges of the bell where you sew it as it is sharp enough there to cut through the thread. So that could have happened to your bells?)
That makes sense about the hot glue. And about how the thread kept getting cut. I thought it was odd that their little teeth were sharp enough to chew the bells off. I'll have to add the hot glue to help keep the bells on.
ReplyDelete