Button Earring Tutorial

So I have seen button earrings for a while now and have wanted to try my hand at making them for a year or more now.  I tried a few months ago, but used small buttons and apparently that is much harder to accomplish!  So, I tried it again about a month ago, this time using bigger buttons, which made bigger earrings but still not super huge.  So I took pictures to document in case anyone wanted to try it out too!  These were great to hand out to friends and family as handmade Christmas gifts this year. I always like trying to make something fun and useful if  I can!

1. First things first, pick your fabric.  If you think ahead, buy your button cover kit first and then you have a template to take with you.  I was not that smart, but I was able to wing it and it worked out just fine anyway!  WIN!

2. Using the template cut out a circle on the outer layer, making sure what is visible in the inner circle will be what is gonna be your earring.

3. Remove template and viola you have a circle, now repeat cause you need two for a pair of earrings!

4. Then using the button kit, you will want to turn your fabric upside down and lay it over the mold.

5. Then set the button on top of the fabric and push into the mold...

6. Like so:

7. Fold in the edges of the fabric to gather in the center of the button.

8. Then line the back on top of the folded over fabric.

9. Using the blue plunger and a little bit of strength, push the back onto the button until it snaps in place.  This took me a few tries and a lot of force, my fingers would get tired after like 5 pairs, so I needed frequent breaks!

10. Viola you now have a button.  But we want earrings and NOT buttons, so there is still more steps, which I unfortunately did not document!  But using pliers you want to remove the button hole portion on the back and then super glue an earring post onto the back.  Allow to dry overnight and you have a pair of earrings.

11. Repeat multiple times and you have 4 pair of earrings.  Check out the various patterns that this works for!

12. Send off to friends and family right before Virginia Tech plays in the Independence Bowl and assume they were able to get the win because all your friends were wearing their new VT earrings!  Or maybe it was that wicked sweet Coach Beamer that lead his team to victory, we may never know...