Crafting, Uncategorized

Tutorial: Fabric Wrapped Easter Eggs and 3 Fun Ways to Use Them!

You can view these fabric designs in the curated collection I made here on Spoonflower!

Hey all! I’m here with a fun project you can make in preparation for the next big holiday — Easter! I am really bad at taking time to make holiday decorations now that my kids are older, and I am thankful every year for all the crafting I did (and wrote about on my old blog: blueeyedfreckle) when my kids were young, because I never make time anymore. I was excited for Spoonflower to ask me this month for some Easter content, because it meant I would actually get some new decor out of it!

The first thing that popped into my head though… was an Easter egg crown. Not really something that would help my HOUSE look any more festive. Oops! So I decided I could come up with 3 projects for you all— two practical and one fantasy. I was inspired by the folk art painted eggs of foreign cultures, such as Polish Pysanky. I love the bright colorful designs AND that they last beyond one use!

This project is a great way to use scraps, fat quarters or even swatches of fabric! I ended up doing the Fill-A-Yard on Spoonflower to pick three different sets of designs that would coordinate with each other for 3 unique “looks.”

Materials for the Eggs:

-Fabric cut into 1/2″ wide strips, at least 8″ long (so you can wrap it a couple times). I used Spoonflower Petal Cotton with a selection of prints from this collection I made just for the project!

-Elmer’s glue mixed with water in a 3:1 ratio (really, just add a tiny bit of water at a time until you’ve made the glue a little runnier) (or you can use Modge Podge of course!)

-Paintbrush

-Plastic Easter Eggs

Holding the egg and placing the strip of fabric on the bottom or top of the egg, begin applying the glue to the egg AND the fabric. Add more glue to the top once you have placed it over the curved egg. You want the fabric soaked with the glue.

One strip should be long enough to wrap the egg at least twice. Because you want to cover the egg, each pass (of the fabric) should move slightly past the last strip you glued down, so that the fabric overlaps just slightly and criss-crosses.

If you are left with just a small uncovered area, you can cover it with a small piece of fabric, or do another long strip wrapped around the egg.

I sat mine to dry overnight on plastic so that the glue wouldn’t adhere to anything. They didn’t stick to each other (because the fabric absorbs the glue), but if they are too close together, they take longer to dry.

Easy right? They were really fun to sit and do while watching TV with my husband at night!

Now let’s see what you can do with them!

You can string them to make a BUNTING!

MATERIALS:

Awl

String

Curved needle

(Extra fabric if you want to do triangles in between the eggs or behind.)

Poke a hole through the egg using the awl. It is okay if you hear it cracking your plastic egg. The fabric is keeping that baby together, so it will still stay intact even if it breaks a little.

Using the curved needle take your length of string (determined by how long you need this to be), and feed it through the two holes in the top of the eggs. Sometimes I had to poke a new hole to make it easier. If the fabric separates at all from the egg just take your bottle of glue and glue it back down (no need to dilute). You an also use hot glue for touch ups.

Once they are all strung, you can add something in between to keep them from moving around! I added little triangles. To do this, I cut my fabric into 3″ by 12″ strips, and then made 3 lines, 3″ apart. I found the center of each box I’d drawn on the fabric and used that for the top point of each triangle as I drew them with the help of my ruler. (You can also just freehand them— which is what I WOULD’VE done if I weren’t writing this tutorial for you all!!!)

I hot-glued them on the string, just folding over one edge of the triangle and trimming anything that stuck out (past the triangle) once it was adhered.

I also used some of the small triangles to go on top of the canvas bunting I made to go behind the eggs! I didn’t want that one to take too long, so I just sewed triangles together (free-handed those) and pinked the edges.

I really love how these turned out, and it was fun to do something in a different color palette than usual! It coordinated nicely with my warm brown wood floors, media console and leather chair.

You can use them in a table centerpiece!

I got out the few pieces of Easter decor that I own and added this faux fern I normally keep on a side table. This was the quickest, easiest set-up and I am so glad I will have these fabric eggs to do this year after year!

I have never actually done a formal Easter dinner for my family, and making this little set-up actually has me rethinking that fact. Now that my kids are getting older, I think we can do something nice like this!

TIP FOR MOMS: My 3 year old son really wanted to play with these eggs, so I left a few out for him to use so that his curiosity would be satisfied without my table setting being destroyed!

Okay, now are you ready for the last, most exciting (to me) use for these eggs?!?!

An Easter Egg CROWN!!!!!

You guys…. it turned out even better than I’d dreamed in my head! I had not envisioned flowers in it originally, but when I had hot-glued all the eggs together, I realized I needed something to fill the holes between the eggs and soften the edges.

MATERIALS:

wrapped eggs

fake florals and greenery

hot glue

floral wire or a kit

metal headband

felt

This is the back of the crown. (I wish it were the front since it shows the eggs a lot better, but it didn’t sit right on my head as the front.)

To make this crown, I hot-glued the eggs together and used leftover fabric strips to wrap around the headband and reattach to the eggs. (Sorry I forgot to photograph this!) To attach the flowers, as you can see on the bottom right near the greenery, I used foral wire to wrap around the eggs, the headband, and the greens. I cut the flowers off the stems and hot-glued those right to the eggs (see below)!

After I was finished covering wires with flowers and things, I wrapped the headband with felt and hot-glued it to the metal. Then I covered the underneath, which was very wire-y and would’ve been scratchy, with a thin piece of felt as well. Just hot glue it to the underneath and you’re set!

Now I have something to wear to all those Easter parties. Phew.

I hope you enjoyed these wrapped Easter Eggs and that you make some for your own holiday decor—— OR CROWN! Don’t forget to check out my Spoonflower shop if you want a lot of colorful fabrics to choose from!