Zippers rock you say? I totally agree! These zipper trims jazz up these lovely charms.

Brooches, Pendants, earrings, whatever they are they look amazing when zippers are added :-)

R-I-H-A-M does a wonderful tutorial using zippers and polymer clay. I have seen something like that done with felt and thought to do a REMIX

Even though felt is used for these projects, the needle felting technique is not used here, neither is Wool Roving for the simple fact that Wool Roving is not available here. And getting it from eBay is very expensive.

However I wanted to achieve that same look in a cheaper way. This is my way of going about it :-)

Step 1: Materials

Felt

Metal Zipper

Hot glue gun

Stiff fusing

Scissors

Preparation- Cut the fabric off the zipper. Burn the fraying edges. Careful that you don't burn your fingers or too much of the fabric

Step 2: Swirly Zipper

For this zipper charm it would be better to keep a bit of fabric rather than burn to the edge so that your needle will have a place to prick.

Cut a 1/4" strip of felt about 3-4 " long. you can shorten it while sewing if you feel it is enough. Place your felt on top of your zipper with the zipper jutting out a bit. Fold the zipper onto the felt and sew it. Make sure the thread matches the zipper. When sewing always sew over the zipper and in to the inner part of the felt. Never over the felt. This way the thread will not show. You can secure however you like from the under part of it. Keep wrapping and tacking the zipper and felt together. Once you have finished your felt wrap the zipper leaving a bit of gap ( this is optional of course) and tack it in. Do this for a couple of swirls by tacking in on 2 sides. If you want an additional swirl at the end. Wrap the zipper on the other end and secure with a tack. Then swirl it and bring it towards where you have made one of the two stitches and tack it in. You can also glue it in place if you like. Make various sizes if you want to combine it for a pendant or brooch. Cut tiny circles to match the felt. Hot glue it to the back to cover the stitches.

You may now fix a brooch pin if you like or hot glue a few swirls together add a loop and use as a pendant!

Try different colors in one swirl too. It would look great!

Step 3: Dragonfly

This little critter is really cute! My daughter grabbed it as soon as she saw it!

Cut a small piece of zipper. Apply hot glue at the ends and close it. You would now have a circle. Take another zipper. Dab a drop of glue at the end and make a tight circle. Cut off excess zipper. Glue around it another zipper of a different color. These two circles would be the head and body.

Now take a strip of zipper about 10" long. Fold it in two to find the center. Glue in both circles on either side of the center. Now curve the two ends of the long zipper to form petals and glue it in. Cut 2 zippers about 2.5" long. Fold each of them in the shape of a petal and glue to the body.

For the tail, take another strip of zipper. Form the shap of a tiny petal shape and glue it to itself. Now glue the tail to the body. You have the option of doing this last at the end when you are adding the backing. I didn't do it that way...but it would have been easier! Note: this is the first time I'm making this!

You have now made the skeleton of the dragonfly.

To fill the small space of the head and tail, Cut a small piece of felt to match the shape. A bit larger is better. Place it on the shape on the back and push it in. Keep it on a flat surface so that the felt doesn't pop out on the other side. Fill the inside (the back) with hot glue so that it is secured to the zipper. Done. This method is only done for small space. It wouldn't work for larger space unless the felt is very thick and stiff. If you have thick firm felt, go ahead and do this same method for the wings too. If not, follow the below steps.

The felt I had was very flimsy, so I needed to stiffen it up. Draw the outline of the wings on stiffening. Cut the shape out and iron it to the colors of your choice. Cut the fabric around the shape leaving a bit of fabric right round.

Place your critter, right side faced down on a flat surface. Now push in the stiffened felt into the wings. Flood the glue in the edges.

Place your critter on felt and draw the outline. Cut it off and glue it to the back. Glue in a brooch pin or a loop to use this charm how ever you like!

Step 4: Autumn Leaf Charm

This is another method of doing these charms. It's kind of reversed. If you have thick hard felt , you can skip the stiffing process and move to the cut your shape step ;)

Iron stiffener fabric to your felt. Cut the shape of a leaf. I wanted the colors of autumn so I took a light orange. To get the shaded color I touched the end of the leaf with a dot of red fabric paint. Then quickly shaded it with wet fingers. Let it dry. You can now draw in the veins with a black permanent marker. My pictures shows it last cause it was an after thought for me :-)

Take a strip of zipper and glue the bottom edge. Quickly glue one side of the leaf. It might sometimes be easier to place the leaf right side facing down on a flat surface and then to glue the zipper.

Cut one end at the edge of the leaf . Leave a bit at the other end for the stem. Now glue in another zipper starting at the edge of the leaf ( where you cut off). Glue it down at the stem. Repeat this process one more time, but leave a bit of loose zipper so that there is gap between the zipper on one side. Again it's the artist in you who dictates how you want to go about it :-).

Take another zipper make a tight circle and while holding it tight with a tweezers, use hot glue on the back. Hold still till glue cools. Now glue the spiral to the stem and leave the zipper loose and glue in at the edge. Cut off and glue zipper on the other side too leaving zipper a bit loose.

There! isn't this like a fantastic use for zippers??

I enjoyed making these. As I was crafting these days I noticed that I was not pandering to my feminine side. I thought It was time up that I stopped my woodcraft for a while and got in touch with my softer self ;-)

I hope you enjoyed this instructable and I would love to hear your feedback or see what you come up with :-)

And lastly I would love to have your votes! lol couldn't help adding that!