The Earbud Poppy Laundromat tutorial

I’ve posted before about my laundromat projects, but this time I thought I’d bring my camera along with and share a quick one perfect for your next trip to the laundromat. I was inspired by Diana Eng’s book Fashion Geek available on Amazon. I made up my own pattern for my version, but feel free to check out the book (I saw it at my local library and there seem to be a lot of cute projects in there.)

Step 1

First, get your laundry, your quarters, and your supplies and head off to the laundromat. I like to do my laundry at midnight at the 24 hour laundromat when it’s nice and quiet and empty, but that’s optional. The supplies you’ll need are few and easy to tote along with you.
-Felt in two colors, one for your petals and one for your center circle. Scraps are fine
-Scissors
-Needles, thread (I like to carry a mini sewing kit in a film canister)
-Your headphones / earbuds

-*- Optional -*- hot glue or tacky glue

Step 2

Cut your pieces out of felt. For the petals, cut a strip of felt about 2 inches tall. You don’t really need a pattern to cut the petals, they’re just rectangles with a rounded top. The curve of your thumb should make a perfect template. Trace your shape onto one end of the felt, cut it out, and use that as your guide to cut out 5 more petals for one flower ( 11 more if you want to make two flowers. From here I’ll be describing how to make one flower), all the same size and shape.

Step 3

With your needle threaded you’re now going to stitch the six petals together.

Holding the bottom of the petal (the flat side opposite the curve) fold the flat side in half. Then fold the edges up towards the fold. Push the needle through the four layers, near the edge of the flat side.

See the image below for a step by step. Click the image if you need to see it bigger.

It should look like this once you slide the petal onto the thread and release it:

String the next five petals onto the thread (If you’re making two flowers, string six petals on one thread and six petals on another thread)

Step 4

Time to check in on your laundry if you haven’t done it yet.

Yep, Spin cycle. Once your laundry is in the dryer just tumbling away, we’ve got about 20 minutes to finish this up.

Step 5

Pull the ends of the thread to gather the petals together. Pull it nice and tight and tie a couple of knots to make your flower.

You could call this done if you like, and sew or glue this onto your earbuds now, but I’ve got a few more minutes to kill until folding time.

Cut a small felt circle of your second color of felt and stitch it to the center of the flower with a matching thread. I used a simple blanket stitch.

I still had some extra time, so I added some french knots in a contrasting thread color for a little extra bit of detail. On the other earbud I also added a little green leaf underneath the flower.

Step 6

Attach the flower to your earbuds. I simply sewed around the earbud and through the petals a few times to hold it in place. Alternately you could use glue, or a glue gun would work great. I noticed some open outlets at the laundromat and realized I could’ve brought my hot glue for a quick and easy fix, but this worked just fine.

Step 7

Put on your headphones, turn up the tunes, and get that laundry folded!