Crafty Marie

A quick and easy activity for St. Patrick's Day is to make some fused bead designs. Perler beads, or Hama as the European version, are great for children and adults. So this is a craft that is ideal as a family session and activity. These St Patrick's Day Perler beads include many Irish themed patterns and motifs including a leprechaun's hat, a rainbow, pot of gold, shamrock, cross and Ireland's flag. You can make up these patterns in school, at home and at scouting and club activities. Younger children from age 4 and up can make use of the larger beads and pegboards which are easier for them to work with: these are called the Biggie Beads in the Perler range and Maxi Beads in the Hama range.

There are lots of reasons why you may want to make some kind of temporary mark on fabric. You might need to: mark around a sewing pattern before cutting it out, draw on a freehand design to embroider or quilt, indicate or show where certain stitches will go, transfer a motif to the fabric, mark out where a buttonhole or dart will go or put down specific pattern symbols. There are some really handy fabric marking pens for quilting and sewing as well as some other tools and techniques which you can use. You can learn about the most popular methods here along with all the tools and equipment needed. Depending on what your actual requirements are, there are many methods to transfer pattern markings to fabric. Knowledge of the different techniques allows you to choose the most suitable way of marking fabric for the sewing task that you need to complete.