An Elegant Brooch for the Holidays

  Hello, friends!  Hope your holiday crafting is going well.  Just this week I had the great pleasure of a visit from my mother.  There was quite a bit of crafting and knitting while chatting and laughing until we cried type of activity, and I'm so grateful for the time we had together.  Today I'm going to share with you one of the results of our crafting adventures.    

  That's my tiny little Pupusa that I rescued off the streets of East LA a little less than two years ago.   We have no idea what mix of breeds she is made up of - chihuahua, yorkie, mexican hairless perhaps?  Whatever the mix, she's absolutely precious to me and has the most crazy entertaining personality that I've ever encountered in a dog.     Dressing this dog up totally cracks me up!  She's a tad over seven pounds and with little body hair, sweaters are a practical necessity.  Luckily, she's so tiny, I never need more than one skein of yarn for her outfits!  This sweater was pretty basic (it had to be because I'm a very novice knitter), so I decided to add a festive brooch haha!  

Isn't she a fabulous model? The bronze flower featured on  this card that I recently shared here on the RRR blog, pic below....

was made using the same easy technique.  Here's the tutorial.

For my brooch, first I chose a beautiful Satin with Grosgrain Edge in Burgundy that is currently available in the Really Reasonable Ribbon shop. I thought it would make an elegant doggie brooch for the holidays paired with a gold fleur de lys button from my stash.

 I cut lengths of this luxurious fiber approximately 1 1/2 in. long, notching one end and then cutting the other end straight.

Then, using a needle and thread, I stitched through my first petal as such.

You could also send it through your sewing machine on its widest setting.  I stitched all the pieces together as shown below.

Then I pulled my thread tight, which gathered the bloom into its final shape, and knotted the circle well to close.

At this stage, you could easily hot glue a button in the center and simultaneously affix to a card or some other project.  As my plan was to make a removable brooch pin, I sewed a piece of felt to the bottom and stitched my button through the top.

Then I pinned it to the sweater I had made.  This way, when it's time to wash the sweater, I can easily remove the pin.

***NOTE*** This pin should be worn only while under human supervision!

  What a face on this one and how much joy and love she brings to our lives.  Hope you enjoyed my project - please visit me on my blog for more inspirations! -Vivian