I thought had this project all planned out... I had mason jar metal bands, felt, thread, a pattern, paint, and a plan.
Ahhh yes... The Plan...
Evidently my plan was a tad on the flawed side. Note to self... when making a themed project... make sure you have the necessary props to show off said project. Creating a somewhat cute lemon felt topper means said topper should adorn jar with lemon product right???? Peaches might not work. That's just me guessin'.
I saw a terrific project in one of my new Crewel books.. aptly titled "The New Crewel"... I decided to do my own take on this project (I am all about getting inspiration from other people's brilliance you know!!)... I did not want to do plain crewel mason jar tops... (I mean it's crewel and all... but I wanted something even creweler)... hehehe (I had to use that horrific pun... If I had not you would have all been disappointed in me and would have never ever come back).
I decided I wanted felt, crewel AND a colorful metal band top too (I have a can of green spray paint that calls to me every morning... I no longer need an alarm clock... that little can of bright green spray paint is making a ruckus in the craft room that could wake the dead)!
Firstly... the metal band (no long hair required (groan... so it's going to be one of THOSE posts))
I decided not to give you any instructions on painting the metal mason/kerr/ball jar bands. Just spray paint them lightly (I did two coats) and they will come out just fine. Make sure you let them get good and dry before you start to mess with them!
I used the lemon pattern from the Fresh Note Cards I featured this past Friday as a download and print freebie (you can go check those out HERE)! I used a darker yellow felt as the main lemon part and a creamy beige felt as the pith. I enlarged the lemon to be 1.5 inches wide (the pattern is below).
I cut out a yellow felt piece (using the paper pattern as a guide).
I attached it to some plain muslin using a chain stitch
(I caught the edge of the felt with the stitch to keep it tacked down).
Once I had it tacked down I cut out the smaller inner circle in beige felt
and centered it on top of the yellow circle.
I tacked it down with a simple single stitch.
Here they are together.
Next I had to decide how to make the triangle centers.
Originally I was going to just do a felt triangle tacked down with a single stitch...(like #3)
...but I wanted to get F.A.N.C.Y.
I tested out a few different things till I found one I thought would make nice
center triangle pieces.
Click on the picture to get the blown-up view so you can see everything I came up with.
I decided to go with #4 (you might like one of the other ones better though).
Here are the outlines of the triangles in single stitch.
...and here they are all covered up with a single stitch.
I figured I needed a stiff backing to adhere the material to...
...so I used some scrap chip board I hung on to for just such a project.
I traced the outline of the metal band onto the chip board....
...and then cut the circle out 2/16th's of an inch SMALLER than the outline...
...did you guys just groan?
You need the extra room to get it shoved into the metal band.
Once I had my chip board circle piece...
...I also cut out a piece of white card stock to be the same size
(I used the chip board piece as my guide).
I glued them together with two sided tape.
The reason I did this is because you want a nice white background behind the material.
So now you need to glue your material to the stiff back you just made.
Do NOT put glue all over the white part of the stiff circle. It will show through (trust Lolly).
Do a nice thin line (about 3/16 - 4/16th's of an inch)...
...did you guys just groan again???
Do this all along the edge of the circle.
You can barely see it but it's there. I swears!!!
Center your fabric piece over the white part of the stiff circle with the glue around the edges
(glue facing up).
Smooth the edges as you are placing it so you do not get lumps.
You will prolly have some but they should be pretty minimal (see my minimal lumps below).
Flip the whole thing over and trim off the excess fabric.
It should look something like this.
Take your beautifully painted metal band and tuck your
felt/fabric/chip board combo into it.
It should fit snugly. If you have excess around the edges pop it out and trim them up.
Note: The reason this chip board is all yucky looking is cause it's literally scraps I kept from another project.
Sooo.. here we are. If I had lemon something (curd for instance)...
...this would look so MUCH better! Those dark looking fellas are peach preserves. Nice right?
So there you have it...
Next I am going to make a peaches top pattern (crazy right...??)... and strawberries, blackberries, pears, apricots, oranges and a fig (cause I make fig preserves every year too). I was thinking tomatoes would be cute too. I want to can tomatoes this year (first time ever).
Well... I like to display a few of my canned preserves on my counter. I think they are beautiful. I thought it would be nice to have some fancy toppers for these little fellas. You could also make them as gifts but they are a tad time consuming (so they would be an extra special gift that can be used over and over)... a set of preserves each with their own special (ahem...) coordinating topper would be an especially beautiful gift).
Below is the pattern for a 1.5 inch wide lemon. I did two versions. You have your simplified version (that I used for this project) and a more complex version (that you can use for something like... oh I dunno....embroidery!!!!!)!
I'll share the patterns and toppers for all of the fruits I mentioned above over the next few weeks. They are not exactly perfect... but that's what I like about them best of all. Sometimes the imperfections make things... well... perfect!
Lemon Pattern
Monday HUGS to each and every single one of you!
P.S. MomChops has requested that the lemon that's at the top of the PDF be made into a pattern as well... so I'll be doing that soon too! xoxoxox
(P.S.S.T. Today is my parents 29th Wedding Anniversary... pretty please join me in wishing them a super terrific anniversary!!!) I love you bunches and heaps MomChops and DadChops!!!!!!!!!!!
