Straw Purse Trimmed with Crazy-Quilt Button Cover Flowers

Trim out this inexpensive straw purse and flip flops with French picot-edge wire-edge ribbon and crazy-quilted button covers. What a great way to trim out summer accessories! Can you see your favorite little girl with her "girly girl" flip flops and matching purse?!

Remember Button-cover Brooches make great holiday gifts and are always a hit a church bazaars. Check out a beautiful assortment of button covers creatively embellished at the yahoo group Silk Ribbon Heirlooms.

The picot edge French hot-pink wire-edge ribbon is gorgeous with a beautiful sheen that does not appear in my poor photograph. I found this ribbon on a buying trip in Paris and loved the color.

1. Using a few small pieces of RibbonSmyth's hot pink paisley rayon fabric, crazy-quilt piece small circles 1" larger than the metal button cover. Piece the fabric pieces using Nymo thread and a running stitch. On top of the seams, I stitched, using lime green buttonhole silk twist, either a cretan or herringbone stitch.

2. Cut the fabric into circles and following the button cover instructions, snap the back of the cover onto the fabric-covered piece.

3. Using Nymo beading thread, gather a 12" length of picot ribbon on one side and pull the gathering stitches so the picot edge ribbon ruffle encircles the button cover. Tie off.

4. Stitch the gathered ruffle to the edge of the fabric-covered button cover. Allow the two ribbon ends to slightly overlap 1/2".

5. Using a glue gun, glue the three button-covered flowers to the straw purse. Glue the center button cover to the purse first. Then add a button cover flower on either side.

All the supplies are available at RibbonSmyth. I used the large button covers for the purse and the Medium size for the flip-flops.

Flip Flops

To trim out the flipflops, stitch two lengths of ribbon together and then pulled the gathering stitch to fit the flip flops.

Using a glue gun, glue the ribbon ruffle to the flip flops. First divide the ribbon in half and glue the ribbon to the thong at the half-way point. Then glue one side of the ribbon to one strap followed by gluing the remaining piece of ribbon to the other side. Turn under the raw edge of the ribbon and glue at the base of the thong strap.

Try the flip flop on and place the button cover onto the flip flop, making sure that the button cover will be comfortable over your toes.

Using a glue gun, place glue onto the back of the button cover and glue on top of the ribbon.

These flip flops look great on your feet!