Tag: Yo-Yo

Ideas for the Yo-Yo

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Those who make yo-yos seem to make them by the dozens (if not by the hundreds) at a time. Next comes the dilemma – what to do with them all? As I promised on Monday’s post, here are some ideas that I’ve made up recently.

A darling purse that the bride can carry with her on her wedding day. This purse was made using a bridal brocade that was lovely to look at – but very slippery to sew! To solve that problem, I pinned the fabric down with flat flower quilting pins (see my DYK sheet on Dritz Pins for more information on these pins). RulerThe quilting pins helped to stablize the fabric while I was cutting the pattern pieces. Since the pieces for the purse were all rectangular, I decided to use my rotary cutter, and the flat pins worked great for that – the ruler lay over the fabric nicely and my pattern pieces came out perfectly.

After you cut out all the pieces you baste on a heavy sew-in interfacing to each piece. This really makes it nice to work with the fabric – now it’s stable. The pattern I used was McCalls pattern #4794, view B. I ironed the purse using the Dritz Sleeve Roll, which was great for the size of the purse. The sleeve roll could actually get inside of the purse, so I was only ironing one layer of the purse at a time (rather than both front and back).

After completing the purse, I added 7 heart yo-yos that were made using two layers of chiffon. This gave the hearts a nice delicate look. The hearts were attached by sewing through the centers to attach them to the bottom of the flap of the purse. I then added a gold bead to the center of each heart for accent. Here’s a close-up of two of the hearts.

Need another idea? How’s this? Here is a jacket and skirt that have been embellished with yo-yos and pearls. It gives a whole new look to this outfit. The skirt and top were made using McCalls Pattern #5542. Hancock Fabrics Demonstrator Carol Prettyman made the outfit and added the embellishment. Heart yo-yos have been used to accent the bottom of the jacket and down the front . Hearts have also been added to each of the sleeves. And if you look carefully at the close-up picture, you’ll see that circle yo-yos dangle from the hem of the jacket to add a little extra movement. Using fabrics that matched and coordinated with the skirt pulls this entire outfit together. The pearls add just that little touch of flash that we all like to see in our clothing from time to time.
carol-prettyman.jpg
Sheila Reinke, Heart of Sewing
Sheila

Do You Yo-Yo?

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I’ve been asked to show just how the new yo-yo makers from Clover work, so this post will strictly be a how-to. Feel free to respond with any questions you have about the process or the product itself.

Step 1

Step 1 – Lining up the template is very important in making circular yo-yos. Notice the bump on the outside of the template (where my finger is pointing)?

Step 2

Step 2 – Line that bump up with the line that is on the insert. Make sure you don’t forget to sandwich your fabric between the two pieces!

Step 3

Step 3 – Snap the fabric between the inside disk and outside cover of the yo-yo maker. Trim away the fabric leaving about ¼” that you hold under so when you are sewing you catch it, this will create the hem.

Step 4

Step 4 – Stitch up and down through each of the openings, starting with a stitch on the back of the yo-yo (where your fabric hem is turned under). One stitch will go on each end of the openings, I call them a smiling mouth shape opening because of the way they look. Go all the way around. Your stitches will not go over any part of the plastic (this is how you will remove the template later). I use a doubled thread when sewing yo-yos.

Step 5

Step 5 – Take off the outside piece of the yo-yo maker. You can see my stitches but of course your thread would match your fabric.

Step 6

Step 6 – Carefully remove the fabric from the inside disk. You may need to loosen your stitches slightly to do this.

Step 7

Step 7 – Now pull the thread to gather up the yo-yo.

Step 8

Step 8 –Pull thread as tight as you can and make a knot. You have a yo-yo! You can pull the yo-yo into shape with your hands if needed.

Step 1 Step 2

Heart Yo-Yo – The heart is done much the same way, except that you will need to shape it a bit more as you pull the threads to finish it.

finished heart

Just think of the possiblities for this heart with Valentine’s Day coming up!

step 1 step 1

Flower Yo-Yo – Flower is much the same, with this difference: you can make the center a different color. Cut a circle for the center and put the two fabrics wrong sides together.
Complete the stitching for the center of the flower first, leaving about a 2″ tail of thread at the beginning and end of the circle. Then start your thread again – this time on the outside of the flower. Note: you should not have a thread that goes from the center of the flower to the outside – these areas are stitched separately.
When you are finished stitching the outside, remove the fabric from the template, and draw the threads up, draw the inner circle first, then the outside. Shape the petals as you go.

step 3 Finished Flower

And for those who need to know – here are the approximate sizes of the finished yo-yos using these templates from Clover:

Extra Large Circle: 2 3/8″
Large Circle: 1 3/4″
Small Circle: 1 ¼”
Extra Small Circle: ¾”
Flower: 1 ¾”
Heart: 1 5/8″ x 1 ¾”

It’s amazing how quickly people can become hooked on yo-yos. And they can be used in so many ways, to embellish a placecard at the table, to dress up a shirt as I showed earlier, in necklaces, embellishing a purse, and the list goes on. Of course their use in quilting is a time-honored tradition! Please let me know what you have done with yo-yos lately!
Sheila Reinke, Heart of Sewing
Sheila