DIY : Button Letter on Fabric

Made this J for Julia's room.  I absolutely love it!

Step 1: Pick out your fabric.  And pick out the board in which you will put it on.

Step 2: Pick out your color buttons.  And your sewing thread - same color as buttons.

Step 3: Pick out your font on your computer and print the letter onto card stock.  My J's font was Bookman Old Style and like size 700ish.

Step 4:  (Iron Fabric if creases) Lay your fabric on your board.  Outline your card stock letter lightly in pencil on your fabric.

Step 5:  Lay your buttons on the fabric on the outlined letter where you want them.  Use toothpick and glue to place a little glue on the back of each button, not covering the holes in the button.  I used normal elmers glue onto a plate and dipped the toothpick in it and dotted it onto the back of the buttons.  (this step took awhile - this is basically to help you keep your buttons in place while sewing).  other methods work too, but this is what I chose.

Step 6: Sew each button, overlapping three times each onto your cloth in your letter arrangement.  Some buttons might lose its stick with the glue, but sewing them on will keep them in place.

Step 7: Iron out fabric again so that there are no more lines in it.

Step 8: Set up fabric on board with your letter in the correct postion. 

Step 9: Hot Glue fabric onto back of board (and sides of board) very carefully so that you don't have any hot glue showing through on the face of the project.  I did this with careful folds like wrapping a present.

Step 10: Hot Glue buttons on the side.  You could probably figure out a way to sew them perfectly on the side a few steps back, but it just seemed like way to much work.  I put one in each corner.

Step 11:  Add Ribbon on top to hang.  I hot glued the ribbon to the back.  Then tied a separate bow to the ribbon.  It took me awhile to figure out how people got it to look this way, but just fiddle around with it and you will find the right look.

FINISHED PRODUCT: