Yoyos for the Visually Impaired

If you have read my blog before, you k now I like working with fabric yoyos.  To me they are fun to make and interesting to look at but they are also interesting to feel.  Since they have some texture to them, they are good to rub fingers over and great when making something for a loved one who is visually impaired.

 

To do this you have to emphasize the individual yoyos.  This means you can’t sew the yoyos together as you with a little table matt or an ornament.  How I do this is by appliquéing the individual yoyo on to a piece of fabric.

 

 

 

Here I did it with this heart.  I could have sewn the yoyos together in the heart design but that would have made it very difficult to sew down the yoyos that were in the middle of the heart.  Plus I think a little bit of space between them like this lets you see and feel the individual yoyos better. 

 

So I arranged the yoyos to form the heart on the fabric and then with a fabric glue stick (or you could even use a drop of white glue) I attached them to the fabric.  You want to have them glued down because in appliquéing the yoyos you will be manipulating the fabric a lot. I tried pins but with so many little yoyos, it distorted the base fabric too much (and with so many and so close together, I kept pricking myself with the pins.).  Now I will admit that using the glue stick doesn’t allow for a permanent hold of the yoyos but I found if they fell off it was just one or two at a time and you can easily put them back in place.

 

Usually when I appliqué, I match my thread to the color of the item being appliquéd.  But with the yoyos, I matched the thread to the base fabric.   Since there are layers to the yoyos, it was easy for me to hide the stitches under the yoyo, getting my needle to grab on to the flat side of the yoyo.  Using one color thread also made it easier to go from one yoyo to the next. 

 

One other tip with appliquéing yoyos is that you can combine different size yoyos together.  When sewing a yoyo edge to edge it is better to use the same size yoyo but with appliquéing them you can use different sizes.

 

                             

 

 

 

I also found it easier if I picked a pair of yoyos and sewed around them crossing the stitches in the middle of them (forming a 8 around them.  I used a different colored thread here so you could see the stitches.) You could even do this with more yoyos.  It helps lessen the number of times you have to stop, knot and cut the thread.

 

You can do all kinds of designs if the design is easy to feel. You want to use a basic shape not something intricate.   I have done initials with the yoyos and put them on a pillow (I usually use bigger yoyos when doing this.).  Pick a design that is recognizable if you were to use one color of yoyos.

 

You might want to give appliquéing your yoyos on to some fabric for a wall hanging or pillow.  It allows you to do a lot of different designs.

 

©2021 Cheryl E. Fillion