Making a Fabric Locket

I've been rolling the idea of a hand-crafted locket around in my head for about a month now. I've tried making lockets out of all kinds of paper, craft foam, even aluminum foil- but nothing has worked out the way I envisioned it. Truthfully, I'm not great at sewing, so I kept putting a fabric locket off ...until now.

While this locket isn't the most beautifully crafted, I feel like it's successful enough to share with you here. I mean, I would wear it. What I like about it, is that I re-used both an old wool top that wasn't flattering, AND a left-over holiday card that I never mailed. Yay for recycling! So without any further hesitation, here's how I put together my fabric locket pin:

After collecting my potential materials, I started by drawing the chalk outline of two hearts (connected at the curve) onto my wool blouse.

Next, I folded the heart in half (keeping them connected), and trimmed away the excess fabric.

I wanted the back of the pin to be sturdy and strong, so I cut out a paper backing from a grocery bag. At first, I wasn't sure exactly where the paper backing was going to go, but I knew that in order to keep the heart pin upright it needed support.

While I figured out the configuration of the inside of the locket, I pinned down green rickrack trim all around the lid...

and sewed it in place.
Next up, I hot-glued the paper backing down onto the inside of the locket. Originally, I had thought I could place my photo onto the paper, and then sew another piece of wool directly atop the photo, but my sewing machine jammed while I was attempting this, and almost ruined yet another locket! Instead of scrapping the entire project for good, I ripped out the thread, and found a colorful and glossy catalog in my pile of mail. I cut out two heart halves and glued them down over my sewing mistake. Next, I cut out another wool heart to cover up the paper backing, and most of the colorful catalog paper.  I cut out a small heart-shaped window from the wool, and hand-stitched it onto the glossy paper accent.

Finally, I sewed a little red fabric heart on the front lid of the locket, and sewed in an assortment of beads to give it a little more sparkle. Afterwards, I secured a safety pin to the back of my piece. The fabric locket was finally complete!

What I like about this locket, is that it's cute enough to pass for a stand-alone pin. Not everyone needs to know that there's a photo inside of me and my hottie husband.

I think there's probably a lot more I could do to push the basic design of this locket, but I'll save that for another day. Today, I'm off to the farmer's market to buy some fresh produce while wearing my newly crafted fabric locket pin!