Easy Parasol/Umbrella Tutorial

In one of my recent posts, I shared the little parasol I'd made, and someone asked if I was planning a tutorial. Well, here it is!

Tools:
air-erasable fabric pen
3" circle template (I traced a drinking glass)
scissors
iron
large pin or needle
paintbrush

Supplies:
thin cotton fabric
fray-check
tacky glue
three tiny seed beads*
gold spray paint
toothpicks
acrylic paint for parasol handle

* the beads should be as small as you can find, while still fitting on to your wire. I used vintage beads, but you may have more luck with crimping beads (which tend to be tiny, with larger holes than regular seed beads)

Preparing the fabric:

1.Start by drawing a 3" circle on your fabric, using the fabric pen and glass.

2. Cut out the circle.

3. Use the fray check to stop the edges from unraveling. I was out of fray-check, so I just dabbed a little glue on the cut edges instead.

4. Fold the circle in half, and use your iron to press a sharp crease in the circle.

5. Open the circle, and fold/ press a second time, perpendicular to the first. Repeat two more times, so that your fabric is divided into 8 equal pieces.

6. Use a large pin or needle  to poke a hole in the center of the fabric.

Making the Handle

7. Cut a piece of thick wire 4-5 inches long. I used a piece of green garden wire. Glue two tiny beads to one end of the wire, spaced about 3/8" apart.

8. Paint your wire and beads with gold spray paint (to make sure the paint stuck,  I primed mine first.) Make sure to paint your third bead as well! You can see that my wire isn't perfectly straight. So long as the part close to the beads is straight, a few wobbles on the other end don't matter too much!

Assembling the Parasol

9. Slide the fabric circle on to the wire.  Add a dot of glue to the wire on the underside of the fabric to keep it in place.

10. Glue the tiny gold bead on top of the fabric circle.

11. Use a toothpick to run glue along one of the creases you pressed into the fabric (steps 4 & 5),and press the wire to the glue-covered crease.

12. Glue each of remaining pressed  creases to the wire. I like to glue every other crease, and then go back and glue the creases in between.

13. Gently pinch and twist the fabric of the parasol around the center rod.

14. When the fabric is arranged to your liking, glue one end of a silk ribbon 1/4" from the edge of the fabric. Continue to hold while the glue sets for a few seconds.

15. Dot a second spot of glue over the glued-down end of the ribbon, and pull the dangling piece of ribbon around the parasol. Cover cut end of the ribbon with a tiny bow.

16. Paint the handle of your parasol with the white craft paint.

17. Clip off extra wire from the tip of your parasol, leaving about a piece about 1/8".