I’m sure you are all bright enough to figure out how to make a hat pin from an upholstery needle, but a girl has to have something to write about on her blog, doesn’t she? The need is heightened because tomorrow I leave for a sunny vacation in Mexico and I need to set this blog on automatic pilot for the next several posts. So lets pretend you have no hot clue, shall we?
The upholstery needles I bought came in 4 sizes. For this pin, I chose the smaller size.
Since it was already on the shorter side, I decided to only have one bead on it as I didn’t want the length taken up with decoration. I wanted to maintain as much of the business end of the pin as I could.
Upholstery needles come with an eye which is useful when sewing upholstery but not so desirable in a hat pin. I took some pliers and attempted to squeeze the eye shut, with the hope that the bead would then slide over it and hide the eye.
The squeezing resulted in the eye breaking off so I decided that wire cutters would be the way to go hence forth. (I was going to have to cut the longer pins shorter anyway or risk taking the eye out of anyone sitting near me.)
I chose my bead and slid it on, securing it with some strong glue.
I did not like the fact that I could see the end of the needle in the hole of the bead…
…so I finished it off with a dab of paint.
I think this pin with go nicely with my Silky Skies dress when I finally finish that.