Let's DIY It! Pt.2 : Brooches, Lace Borders, and Simple Circle Skirts

Welcome to the first actual post in this DIY series! If you need a refresher on the types of DIYs in this post, or DIY techniques, please check out the first post in this series.

Newbie: Hot Glue Brooches

Source: The Shabby Tree

One simple DIY that was actually included in the recent mori week is hot glue brooches! This DIY was featured during Mori Week by mori-no-tori and is a great beginner DIY craft.

What You Need:

  • Scraps of lace, yarn, fabric, etc. Any size, color, or shape will work.
  • Doilies (lace appliques will also work if you cannot find any doilies, but they will be a stiffer material)
  • Spare buttons, flowers, ribbons, beads, or charms
  • A safety pin or lapel pin back
  • Hot glue gun OR needle and thread 
  • OPTIONAL: Felt for the base

Tutorial Links:

How To Make It:

Hot Glue Brooches are a very beginner-friendly craft, because each brooch is unique and there are no wrong or right ways to create one.

Step one is to gather your materials, place the materials you would like to use next to each other to check for color combinations, cut and place the items without attaching them, until you like the look you have created. You can also skip this step and just wing it if you are feeling spontaneous!

The standard shape is to use doilies, flowers, or something round as your base, but it is not required. You can make your brooch in strips, in the shape of a bow, or anything else you might like! 

An example of an alternative shape
Source: ObjectsAndNonsense

You can also make it as small or as big as you like! And even adapt this DIY to be a necklace, collar, or more by adding a string or attaching it to another accessory. It's completely up to you. But for this post, I will stick to describing the simple brooch version.

Source: Left, northoceanblvd

Once you have an idea of what you would like your brooch to look like, you may consider the optional step of creating a base for your brooch. You can create a base by cutting felt circles or shapes to match the base of your brooch and attaching two of them together using hot glue or thread. Then attach your chosen pin to the back of the felt base using hot glue or thread. (If you choose to use a safety pin, you can simply slide the pin through the pin itself and skip attaching it, but an attached lapel pin back will be easier to use when you wear it, and lasts longer.)

If the base of your brooch has enough items that you cannot see through it, or you have a solid space to attach your pin during the last step, then you might skip this step. But a base will make your brooch more sturdy!

The next step is the most fun! Take all of the items you have laid out and begin attaching them using hot glue or thread! There is no correct way to attach them, but one way that might be sturdier and last longer for the standard shape is to place long, hanging pieces sandwiched in between the base pieces of your brooch, or in between the brooch base you made in the earlier step and the brooch pieces.

Once you've attached all of your pieces, if you haven't made a base, attach the pin at this step to the back of your brooch.

And that's it! You're done, and you now have a one-of-a-kind piece to wear with your mori coordinates!

Beginner: Adding a Lace Border

This DIY is absolutely a must-know for mori folk! It's an easy and fun way to upcycle clothes and make your own unique items! It can also be used to replicate a number of items you might find from brands or fast fashion.

Skills You Need:

  • Basic sewing skills are best for this project. You can use either a hand sewing method or a sewing machine.
  • ALTERNATIVE: You may be able to use a hot glue gun, but please be careful! Not all fabric types can be hot-glued, and hot glue may show through your fabric or melt it. Please do your research before hot gluing anything to your clothes.

What You Need:

  • One clothing item to alter (skirt, shirt, sweater, etc.)
  • Ribbon lace of any size or shape
  • Sewing pins
  • Needle and thread (ideally, thread color that matches your clothing item)

How To Make It:

Adding a lace border requires a bit of time and patience, but once you've figured it out, it's very versatile and can be used to turn everyday, normal items into unique mori pieces!


The first step is to find an item you want to add lace to. The easiest place to add lace trim is the hems and borders of items that have solid fabric without holes and a straight hemline. You can add lace to any piece, but asymmetrical hemlines may be more difficult to keep things even and straight, and fabric with lots of holes, like knit items, may be harder to attach your lace to without stitches and thread showing through.

Once you have the piece you want to use, pick the lace you want to add! Any lace ribbon will work, big or small. It depends on the look you would prefer. You can even repeat the process more than once with different sizes of lace for a layered look.

Next, flip your piece inside out and pin your lace to the hem of the item you are altering on the backside. The simplest way to attach the lace is to lay the fabric and the lace flat, making a flat lace hem like the image above on the right. 

(If you have a bit of sewing experience or want to try a challenge, you can also make your lace into an optional ruffle before you pin it! Here are a few quick tutorials for sewing machine or by hand.)

Once you have secured your lace to your item, and you are happy with the length and placement, secure the lace using a simple stitch. Any stitch will work, so use whichever you are most comfortable with. You can remove the pins as you go once the fabric is secured. (If your thread is the same color as the item you are altering, that is even better! If you have messy stitches or make errors, it will be harder to notice if the color of your thread matches.)

Once your lace is attached, you are done! You have successfully added a lace border. Congrats! You can repeat the same steps as many times as you like for layered looks, add lace to multiple hems on the same piece, or any other combination you can think of.

Intermediate

Probably the easiest first sewing project you can do is a simple circle skirt. I'm not an experienced seamstress by any means, so for this one I will give a simple explanation and link you to a great pattern by DIY Daisy that easily lays it out step by step.

Source: DIY Daisy

Skills You Need:

  • Basic sewing skills, preferably using a sewing machine to save time
  • Ability to measure fabric
  • Experience making clean seams, or willingness to learn!

What You Need:

According to the linked tutorial, you need:
  • 2+ metres of fabric
  • Matching thread
  • Safety pin for threading your drawstring
  • Scissors
  • Measuring tape
  • Iron and ironing board
Please check out the link for more specifics!

Tutorial Link:

How To Make It:

Circle skirts are a simple sewing project that only requires sewing together large squares of fabric and are gathered with a drawstring. 

This pattern is great because it is not only simple but also highly customizable. You can customize it with different fabric types (or use multiple fabrics for a paneled look) and easily add details like lace borders, ruffles, appliques, ties, buttons, patches, and more. It's a very quick and easy way to add something unique to your wardrobe.

Here are a few examples of some circle skirts sold by various fast fashion brands that you might be able to make a version of!




That's all for today's post! I hope you can try your own DIYs and add something fun and unique to your mori wardrobe. Happy crafting!

Other Posts in this Series:

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