Metal mesh pins

This is a fun project for an afternoon! These little pins work up so quickly that you can literally make one today and wear it tonight. I think it actually took me more time to gather up the beads and do-dads that I wanted to use than it did to stitch them together.

This is also a great way to use up leftovers from other projects. If you keep a jar of “spares” sitting around, this is the time to reach for it! 

Materials

2-part round mesh bar pins, 25mm

Delica 11/0 seed beads

Nymo 0 beading thread

Assorted glass beads and crystal, 4-12mm

Assorted Lucite or glass flowers and leaves

Assorted metal charms or Indian bells

A very small scrap of felt or pellon interfacing

Fabric glue

Tools

Long beading needles

Fabric scissors

Chain nose pliers

1. Anchor a piece of Nymo thread to a small piece of pelon or felt by taking several stitches close together. Bring your needle up from the back of the mesh dome in the middle, and begin to cover the background of the dome with Delicas in the color of your choice. I did an outline stitch pattern out from the center in a spiral, stitching on 5 beads at a time and overlapping the stitches.

2. When the entire surface is covered with beads, bring your needle and thread back to the middle of the dome and stitch through to the front.

3. Begin to add your embellishment beads. To add flowers, make a short stem of several Delicas, stitch through a Lucite or glass flower, through another Delica, and back down through the flower and stem. Add larger beads and leaves the same way, and add dangling flowers on longer stems if desired. To add several dangling charms or flowers, add a longer strand of Delicas, stitch through the charm, and back down through several of the Delicas. Add more charms by branching off and adding more Delicas ending in another charm. When you’ve added all the branches you want, bring the needle and thread all the way back down the original strand and to the back of the mesh dome. Anchor your thread occasionally to the small piece of felt in the back. Add as many of these branched strands of charms or flowers as you want.

4. When you’ve finished adding all the embellishments you desire, stitch through the piece of felt several times and clip your thread, dabbing it with fabric glue. Allow the glue to dry and attach the back of the pin, carefully bending the pins down over the top dome to hold it in place. You may have to nudge some of the Delicas aside gently to do this; they will move back into place and cover the pin when you’ve finished.

Copyright 2013 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

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