Recycle your old blue jeans and fabric scraps into a pretty pinwheel bouquet. This is a simple craft that kids can participate in, but depending on the age of the child, you will need to supervise the iron and hot glue gun. Each pinwheel can be cut and assembled in less than 30 minutes, making it easy to create a bouquet in an afternoon.
Things You Will Need:
Card stock
Ruler
Scissors
Compass
Blue jeans
Marking pen
Fabric scrap
Heavy-duty fusible web
Iron
Double-stick tape
Crop-A-Dile
Paper binding brad
Hot glue gun
Wooden skewer
Step 1
Trace an 8-inch square on card stock. Cut out the square. This is the pattern for all the pinwheel pieces. Using a compass, trace and cut out a 1-inch circle.
Step 2
Cut off the leg from a pair of old blue jeans. Cut the leg open at the seam and lay the fabric flat. Place the pinwheel pattern on the denim and trace around it. Cut out the square. Using the pattern, trace and cut out a fabric square and a square from heavy-duty fusible web.
Step 3
Lay the jean square on your ironing surface with the wrong side facing up. Place the fusible web on the square with the paper side facing up. Iron the fusible web to adhere it to the jean square. Allow the web to cool.
Step 4
Peel off the paper from the web. Place the fabric square on the web side of the jean square with the right side of the fabric facing up. Iron the fabric to adhere it to the web. The fusible web is sandwiched in between the two layers.
Step 5
Lay the square on your work surface with the jean side facing up. Place double stick tape on one side of the 1-inch circle. Stick the circle in the center of the square. Cut from one corner of the square to the center, stopping at the edge of the paper circle. Repeat at each of the remaining three corners of the square. Remove the paper circle.
Step 6
The square now has a triangle cut on each side. Punch a hole in the lower, right hand corner of each triangle. Punch a hole in the center of the square. I used a Crop-A-Dile to punch my holes, but you could also use a nail.
Step 7
Lay the square with the fabric side facing up. Grasp a corner with a hole in it. Insert a paper binder brad through the hole from the jean side to the fabric side. Note: On the fabric side of the square, the holes are on the bottom, left of each triangle. Rotate the square to the left. Add the next hole to the legs of the brad. Continue until all the corner holes have been added to the brad. Insert the brad through the center hole of the square. Open the legs of the brad to secure it on the back of the square. You now have a pinwheel.
Step 8
Apply a dot of hot glue over the brad on the back of the pinwheel. Lay the blunt end of a wooden skewer in the glue.
Step 9
Cut a 1-inch square from the blue jeans. Apply glue to the wrong side of the square. Place the square over the blunt end of the skewer.
Step 10
Turn the pinwheel over with the front facing up. Apply a dot of glue to the front of the brad. Place a button over the glue.
These pinwheels do not turn. They are intended as flowers for a vase, or pokes for a houseplant.
For a different twist, experiment with folding the corners the opposite direction so that the blue jeans are on the inside.
Make smaller pinwheels by reducing the size of the square.
