It’s almost coat season, and I’ve got the world’s most boring, brown coat that I’m never super excited to wear. Actually, I hate most coats…. I am allergic to wool, so I’m always stuck with the oversized down coats instead of the super stylish pea coats. Cry myself a river, right?
Anywho, I decided to try my hand at making a coat pin to jazz up my brown coat. So, I dug around in my craft room for some supplies and set to work.
Supplies: Feathers, Buttons, Pin backings, Cardboard (I used old coasters), Felt, Hot Glue, Barrette backings (if you want a hair barrette instead of a pin).
Here’s what you do:
1. Gather the supplies above, selecting one button per pin and between 4 – 6 feathers per pin
2. Cut out a small piece of cardboard (or in my case, a piece of the coaster) to glue feathers onto. It can be as large or small as you’d like, depending on how much of a statement you’d like to make with your pin. I’m not that brave, so my cutout was about 2 inches wide. Before you start gluing ( I didn’t this the hard way the first time around), cut out a piece of felt the exact size of your cardboard. This will be the backing on the pin later on.
3. Glue feathers all over your piece of cardboard. Tip: Place the hot glue on the cardboard, not the feather. It becomes almost string-like on the feather and slides off easily. When all of the feathers are on the piece of cardboard and none f the backing shows through, let all of the glue harden. Then, glue on your button. I placed my button at the spot where all of the feather stems meet to hide them. It seemed to work rather well.
4. When everything is good and dry on the front of your pin, flip over the pin and use hot glue to attach the felt backing.
5. Attach your pin backing or barrette clip to your felt with hot glue and let it all dry. I found it useful to fold up a little piece of my coaster and place it in between the prongs of the hair clip so the glue wouldn’t fasten each side to the other.
6. Your pin/barrette is done! Put it on your coat or in your hair and show it off.
I think they are adorable and will really help make my boring coat a little more exciting (whenever I actually dig it out of the closet… I’ll probably be cold for a little while longer).
I think this one is my favorite:
A Smith of All Trades 
