Learn to Make Yo-Yos
TRANSCRIPT:
Hi, I'm Elizabeth Tisinger Beese with American Patchwork & Quilting magazine. I love yo-yos, but I don't like how long they take to make. So I really like the Quick Yo-Yo Maker from Clover. And today I'm going to show you how to use it using the extra large size. And this finishes at 60 millimeters big, or 2-3/8". This is the size that designer Terri Atkinson used on her Yo-Yo Rows quilt, which is on the cover of the June 2011 issue. So for a yo-yo this size, start with a 5-1/2" square of fabric. You can also trim off the ends or the corners of the square of fabric if you want to to make an octagon shape. Or you can just trim it later, which is what I do. The yo-yo maker is actually two parts. This one has a jagged edge, and I'm going to call that the sawtooth half. This half has a hole in the middle, and I'm going to call that the doughnut half. So take the doughnut half of the yo-yo maker and put it face down on your work surface with one of the ridges at twelve noon. Then take your square fabric and place it right side down on top of the doughnut. And make sure it's centered on the doughnut and there's about the same amount extending around all of the edges. Then take the sawtooth part of the Yo-Yo Maker. And you can see that there are six straight lines on the Yo-Yo Maker. Make sure those are face-up. And then position one of those lines right aligned with the ridge on the outside. And then just click in place. All of them may not click, and that's OK, as long as some of them do you know you're in the right area. So this is when we want to trim off those corners. And you don't have to be exact. Just trim it so there are about 3/8" to 1/2" seam allowances sticking out beyond the Yo-Yo Maker. So before we get started stitching, I just want to show you where we're going to be stitching. On the doughnut half of the Yo-Yo Maker there are little arced openings and we want to bring the needle up at one side of the arced opening and then we'll go back down in the other side of that same opening. If you are right-handed, you will be stitching from left to right. And if you are left-handed, you'll be stitching just the opposite way. So now, let's actually start stitching. Take a 24"-length of quilting thread, hand-quilting thread, which is strong and tie a knot about 4" from one end. And thread the other end in a hand-sewing needle. So take the Yo-Yo Maker and hold down the seam allowances with your finger to hold them out of the way. And make sure they are included in the stitching. So bring the needle up at one end of the arc opening and go back down the same arc. Then continue just coming up in the next arc opening and going back down. So just continue stitching all the way around until you get back to the beginning point. And right at this point you can make a final stitch overlapping that first stitch in the first arc. Then just pop out the sawtooth half of the Yo-Yo Maker and peel off the fabric. Pull both ends of the Yo-Yo Maker up and to evenly gather the yo-yo. And then tie those ends in a knot until it's secure. And then you have a flat, cute-looking yo-yo. So then you can take these thread tails and put them back into the hand-sewing needle. And because I'm going to sew my yo-yos onto a background, I don't care if my thread tails show on the back, so I just take it and bring the thread tails to the back and take a little tiny back stitch, and then stitch through it to secure the thread ends. And then I just trim them. If you don't want those thread tails to show you can also, after you've made the knot, just run them through the folds of the yo-yo and that will hide them for you. So then you're all finished. And now you know how to use the Clover Quick Yo-Yo Maker.