Cute Alligator Hair Clippie Tutorial

Amy over at Angry Chicken has a great tutorial on felt barrette covers that completely inspired me to make some for Mimsey's birthday. I picked up some great 100% recycled plastic felt (awesome!!) and set about making some barrettes. Very quickly I discovered that I am not nearly as awesome as Amy is, and my barrette sleeping bags sucked pretty hard. Something about sewing from the bottom and (eek) following the line, just confused the heck out of me. So, I started cutting out the felt slightly larger than the barrette, sewing it onto the felt with a miniscule seam allowance. Suddenly the sleeping bags were looking pretty great! I trimmed them up, and VIOLA! Mimsey loved her barrette!

Then I started getting fancy. I started mixing up the colors and sewing two different colors together. (I know, I'm living on the edge...) At first I was just trimming the bottom color a little larger than the top to make a border, but then I pulled out the pinking shears and got really crazy. Suddenly I had a pack of google eyes in my hand and the spark of the tutorial that I am now going to unleash upon the world...

The Alligator Hair Clip Tutorial

(wild applause!)

Step 1

Cut out the top color for your barrette. Cut it just slightly larger than the hair clip, but leave plenty on the back end (you'll trim it up later).

Step 2

Sew top color to the white felt. Use a very tiny seam allowance. Leave a gap between barrette tops.

Step 3

Slide the barrette into the little pocket you've made. It will make the next step much easier.

Step 4

Using pinking shears, trim the bottom color (white) around the edge of the barrette top. Try to line up the "valley" of the scissors with the edge of the top color, because it looks cuter.

Step 5

Using the back of the barrette as a guide, trim up the back end of the top color of the barrette. Go ahead and trim up any loose threads as well and glue on google eyes! Crikey, you've got alligators!!!!

Okay, I have to be honest. It's not your monitor. The top alligator with the pink eyes does have pink teeth. I thought it was cute.