How to make a hair clip holder with fabric applique

Hi Creative Mamas! I am super excited to share with you how to make a hair clip holder with fabric applique. Sorting out through my daughter’s hair clips, bows and hair bands it’s something that is getting quite tricky at the moment. As she grows up her room is filled with all sorts of hair accessories and they seem to be all over the place. So this DIY hair clip and bow organizer has been the solution!

Different types of hair clip holders and organizers

There are many types of hair clip holders and organizers:

How to make a hair clip holder with fabric applique- tutorial

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Free Applique Pattern for the Hair Clip holder

Get the password for the library with the free applique patterns to make your own hair clip holder by filling out this form:

Step 1:

The first step is to gather all your fabric and trims. I love the process of choosing my colors and textures. As I mentioned before I used a combination of fabric scraps and trims. I gave them an antique and vintage look by over dyeing them. I also re purposed an old cotton napkin which I naturally dyed using logwood. Check out this post for more information about natural dyes.

Working with these materials and these processes gave the finished clip holder an antique look which is exactly what I wanted to achieve for my daughter’s room. However, you can use 100 % quilting cotton if you want to use new materials :).

Cutting instructions:

• Cut 1 front piece: 22 inches (56 cms) by 19 inches (49 cms)
• Cut 2 front top & bottom panels: 22 inches (56 cms) by 5 inches (13 cms)
• Cut 1 piece of batting: 29 inches (74 cms) by 23 inches (59 cms)
• Cut 1 back piece: 29 inches (74 cms) by 23 inches (59 cms)
• Cut 1 strip for the binding: 3 inches (8 cms) by the perimeter of the clip holder

Step 2:

Print out the applique pattern for the mom and the gorgeous girl which you can download from the resource library. You can print them out to any size you wish. There is a full figure and a segmented one. For this project I have used the full figure and I printed it out to 130% for the mom and kept the original size for the gorgeous girl . This gave me a nice finished size, but you can play around with the sizes.

We are now going to mark the exact position of the applique figures on the base fabric. It’s much easier to applique if we know where each piece goes.

Lay your base fabric and place a piece of pattern transfer paper on top. Place the applique pattern on top of the transfer paper (make sure its positioned exactly where you want it in your base fabric) , go over your applique pattern with a soft pencil applying enough pressure so that the lines will be marked on your fabric.

Once you have marked the full figure on the fabric go ahead and cut the different pattern pieces. Choose your fabrics for each piece of the applique pattern. Pin and cut around. I will start with the mom 🙂

Step 3:

Start by placing each fabric cut piece on the exact marked position on the fabric. It’s now time to start the applique process. Choose what kind of stitch you want for the applique. I have used the needle turned applique stitch but you can use a back stitch, a running stitch, a blanket Stitch or a whipstitch. It really depends on the fabrics that you are working with and the look that you want to achieve.

Needle Turn Applique

I am doing a needle turn applique so I have allowed for a 5 mm ( 1/4 inch) seam allowance. First step in needle turn applique is to finger fold the seam allowance of the area where you will start sewing. I like to start sewing on one of the straight sides of my piece. Place the applique piece on the exact position that you want it to be on your base fabric following your marked lines.

Insert the needle from the underside of the base fabric and bring it to the edge of your folded applique piece. At this stage make sure that you are catching a few threads in the folded edge. Go back down into the base fabric just under the folded edge. The reason for this is to hide the stitches so continue by making stitches around your pieces always going back into the base fabric and back up by the folded edge.

When you get to an edge (like the shoulders) simple fold the edges towards the inside of the applique piece with the top of the needle and keep sewing by repeating the same process.

Keep sewing one piece at a time until you have the full figure.

Note: Throughout the whole applique I have used felted wool for the legs, hair and balloon string. When using felt you can simply use a whipstitch since its not going to fray.

 

Step 4:

This is the super fun part! Once you have finished sewing all the applique pieces you can start embellishing further by adding lace, buttons and trims. In this case I am adding some old handmade lace that I have inherited as well as a doily made by one of my grand aunties. I am using them as trims for the mom skirt as well as clip holders.

Step 5:

For the gorgeous girl’s pattern I simply printed out the segmented pattern pieces which are ready for applique. I have already done the marking for the mom so I don’t need to mark again for the little girl since I am using the mom applique as my guide. It avoids that xtra step of marking 🙂

To applique the girl simply repeat the needle turned applique technique as described above with. In the illustration below I am showing how I am choosing the right color fabrics to match with mom’s outfit 🙂 I also decided to include a balloon for the little girl to hold.

Applique: My base fabric hasn’t been marked so I am placing all my applique pieces with pins on the base fabric before I do the applique.

Step 6:

Once you are happy with the applique figures (the mom, the girl and the balloon) it’s time to start placing the clip holders. In this case I am using an old doily as a pocket to keep all sorts of accessories and different size laces as clip holders. I am also using felted wool as long strands to clip bobby pins and bows.

Optional step: Place a second piece of fabric under the base fabric. Run a few lines of running stitching to sew the two layers together. Sew the doily onto the two layers of fabric as well. This will give the clip holder some extra interest and it will make it more mushy .

Sew the doily in place by either hand or machine. Make sure you sew 2/3 of it because the top needs to remain open in order to act as a pocket or pouch.

Once the doily is sewn in place go ahead and add the top and bottom pieces of fabric. I have chosen a green corduroy which is thicker than the base fabric.

Trim excess fabric on all four sides of the project. In case you have added an under layer you will have a bit of excess to tidy up.

Press the seams down towards the corduroy.

Step 7:

Prepare the felted strips. Choose two of the strips and fold the edges on one side in order to create a little hook. Sew in place. I used a zig zag machine stitch for this step.

Place all the lace strips and the felted strips in place. You can decide where to place them. The idea is to have options to hold clips and bows in many places. I like a combination of vertical and horizontal clip holders.

Once you are happy with the placements and the look you can go ahead and start sewing them in place. I used a zig zag machine stitch for this.

Step 8:

Place the cotton batting under the clip holder. Place the backing fabric under the batting. You now have all three layesr in place. Make sure that the backing fabric and the batting are bigger in size than the base fabric.

Secure the edges of the strips in place.

Using a walking foot you can start quilting your three layers. I have done some random lines which work great in combination to my initial hand sewn running stitches.

Step 9:

It’s now time to bind the edges. I like using a contrasting fabric for binding because it helps frame the work. Make sure your strip is long enough to go around the whole project. If you need to sew several pieces of fabric to create a long strip make sure you do so before you start binding.

Place the binding strip on top of the base fabric right sides together. Using the holding clips fold the first edge, this will be the starting point of the binding edge. Sew a straight line until you reach the first corner.

When you get to the first corner stop sewing. Keep the needle down and lift the foot. With your fabric scissors make a diagonal cut all the way to the needle. Now lift the foot and with the needle down pivot your fabric around 90 degrees.

Keep sewing on straight line all the way until the next corner. Repeat this process in every corner.

When you finish going around the clip holder cut the binding strip. Double fold the binding strip to form a clean neat edge and finish by sewing by hand as shown in illustration below.

Download your FREE APPLIQUE PATTERNS now

These patterns are great to use with different techniques such as embroidery, iron fused applique, sewing machine applique and fabric collage as well.

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