Yo-yos, Yo?

A little while ago I tried my hand at making yo-yos. I'm not a quilter but I think these things are adorable. I started making them and then I didn't realize how many I made. I just cut a bunch of circles and one thing lead to another (great, now I have The Fixx stuck in my head).

 

 They're like cute little button flowers.

I made a tutorial for these little guys. They are fairly easy to make and they do not take too long to make. Once you get the hang of it, you'll zip right through them.

 

 Here is what you will need:

5x5 inch cotton fabric squares
pencil
scissors
needle
thread
something to use as a circle template (I used a tin container for coasters)

 

Place your template on the fabric and trace. 

*note: you really should iron out an wrinkles in the fabric, but I was lazy and didn't (they came out just fine).

 I traced out all my circles before I started sewing anything.

 

 

Then cut out the circles.

All ready to go!

 

Now it starts to get only a smidgen tricky. And by tricky, I mean trying to keep the fabric folded over to sew together.

  

Begin by folding over the fabric by a 1/4 of an inch (wrong sides together) to get a folded seem.

LOL! Sounds a lot harder then it really is. I made sure to take loads of pictures to help explain.

Knot off the beginning of the thread, then begin threading though the fabric all the way around.

So, now you are sewing through the top and the "bottom". 

DO NOT knot it and finish off the thread.

Next, you grab a firm hold of the thread and begin to pull gently until the fabric starts to gather or pucker.

I took a photo of another one that shows the gathering.

 Once the fabric closes in on itself, tie off the thread and trim the excess thread.

And you are done!

You have just made your first yo yo! Pretty easy, right?

The circle that I started out with was roughly 4 inches, and the finished product is around 3 inches.

You can pretty much make any size you want.