DIY: Jo-Ann Fabrics Zipper Rose Corsage

Jul 28, 2009 | DIY

I have a love/hate relationship with Jo-Ann Fabrics. It’s the only fabric/notions store around; it’s more affordable than my local Mill End Store; it’s easy to get to. It also never seems to have exactly what I’m looking for and the notions are mostly for crafters: cheap, fall apart easily, aren’t made to industrial standards or to withstand heavy usage (don’t even get me started on their selection of snaps, buckles, and sewing machine needles for leathers…inevitably Dritz and inevitably crappy), and, compared to what I could be spending at an online wholesale place (or in NYC on fabric row!!), fairly expensive. I can definitely blow through $40 with almost nothing in my basket. $5.95 for a zipper???? 2″ wide sew-on velcro for $7.99 a yard?? I mean, come on. I understand they are a retail store and need to set the prices as such out here on the West Coast in order to make a profit…but with no alternative supply store here it makes my habits very expensive. It’s also populated with…erm…people who usually have a few decades on me and are thronged around the quilting section. But it’s always there when I really need something – and I can often improvise in their findings/notions section when I can’t find what I want.
My other quibble with them is that the majority of the free project sheets around the store are usually for projects that don’t seem…particularly fashion-forward or youthful. How to make a quilted tea-cozy, for instance. A how-to sheet on attaching 1/2″ red loop fringe to the bottom of your kid’s jeans.  I guess they know their current market (which doesn’t seem to be people who are interested in trends or fashion-forward designs).

So I was pleasantly surprised to come across the project sheet above, for a zipper corsage. (Jo-Ann’s Corporate seems to be putting out more trendy products as of late, and has a variety of new and fashionable trims in, like chain, long fringe, and rhinestone chain, more fabric embellishments like sew-on rhinestones and heat-set studs, punky iron-on appliques and transfer sheets, the line of Project Runway supplies [though no draping tape of course -oooooh! >:( ], as well as younger-looking people featured on the project sheets and more trendy projects in general.  Me likey these new developments!!) So here’s the how-to for this on-trend zipper corsage (though pls ignore Ms. Dallas Texas circa 1992 modeling the look above):

Hope it’s big enough to red!
Happy DIY’ing!

-Carly J. Cais