If you find yourself rummaging around in your sewing box and wondering how to use up all those odds and ends, this is the project for you! Turn old wooden sewing bobbins into beautiful Valentine-themed photograph holders, or use them to leave notes for someone special. Designed to evoke a nostalgic air of vintage romance, you could adapt them to incorporate any theme by adjusting the fabrics and colours.
Make a ‘tree of life’ stand
Cut the blunt end off three bamboo skewers so they measure 14cm. Glue them all together with PVA to form a tree trunk and use a peg to secure them as they dry.
Place a small piece of Blu Tack into the bottom of a wooden bobbin, push the dry skewers into it with the blunt ends down and secure in place with a small amount of PVA. Allow to dry. Take a little wadding, approximately 3cm x 5cm, and glue it around the base of the trunk so that the stalk is slightly wider.
Cut a piece of brown fabric measuring 1.5cm x 45cm and machine stitch a couple of lines along the length in a contrasting thread. Starting at the base of the tree trunk, apply a little acid-free glue and begin to wrap the length of fabric around it at an angle so that it overlaps itself. Keep applying glue as you hold it in place, finish 2cm from the top and trim the excess.
From pale pink cotton, cut two circles 8.5cm in diameter and set one aside. Using dark green thread stitch swirly branches onto the circle, as shown. Cut out 11 tiny hearts from dark pink or red fabric and place as shown using an acid-free gluestick. Once dry, stitch around each heart to secure and iron the reverse side on a low heat.
Place the two pink circles wrong sides together and stitch 0.5cm in from the edge all the way round leaving a 3cm gap open at the bottom. Clip the seam allowance cl