Crafting Up Some Luck!

It's been a very gloomy weekend here. It snowed on Friday. Was gray and gloomy yesterday and that gloom is hanging on today. What does that mean? It means I needs me some crafty fun. So, yesterday I taught myself (with a little help from YouTube) how to crochet a shamrock. I made several out of several different types of yarn. But, I liked the lime green shamrocks I made from Sugar and Cream yarn the best. So, I made a few more. Now, what to do with them?

Well, I made a cute little Lucky Shamrock wall hanging. And they were very easy.

The first thing to do is crochet up some shamrocks. Go to the web or YouTube, there are lots of tutorials out there. Find one you like and can make sense of and crochet away.

Then I took squares of fleece, cut to a good size to fit around your shamrock. (The shamrock's will vary in size depending on your choice in yarn.) You will need 2 squares of the fleece for each wall hanging.

Next, find a button that you like that is larger than the hold in the center of your shamrock. Then, just sew on the button. As long as the button is larger than the shamrock's hole, it will hold the shamrock on. I sewed mine on with green embroidery floss.

Now, it's on to the sewing machine. I cut some lengths of matching lime green grosgrain ribbon and sewed a loop onto the back square of fleece. I'm sure this could be made to look prettier, but I prefer simplicity and quickness so, I just stitched straight across the ribbon and back. It'll be against the wall, so who's going to see it anyway? Right?

Oh, and I did go back and cut those ends at an angle so they wouldn't fray.

Using a 6/8" seam allowance, and with some lucky green thread, sewed the outer outline with just a straight stitch.

Then, I came back and sewed another outline just inside of the first one. Be sure when you are sewing the outlines that you keep in mind where your ribbon loop is so that you don't catch it while you are sewing your outlines.

The last step is just to snip some fringes into the outer edge all the way around. And. Viola. You have stitched up some cute lucky Irish decorations!