DIY Brooch Display Stand

In the last instalment of my Lolidrobe Reassessment I added an extra goal for the rest of this year which was to craft a brooch display and blog about it. And lo and behold, this is what’s in store for you today!

Things you will need

• A photo frame (it has to have a soft backing like plywood or cardboard)
• Fabric (I’m using felt, but anything that’s opaque and not too thick will do)
• Scissors
• Stapler or a staple gun
• Plush stuffing (I don’t know the proper name for this)

Instructions

Step 1

Remove any glass protecting the photo and discard safely. Take away the back of the frame and put it on the fabric to roughly measure and cut out the shape. You don’t have to be very neat, but remember to leave some extra around all sides, at least an inch. You want enough to be able to cover the front and have some to tuck behind and create a pocket in between.

Step 2

Staple the fabric to the back of the frame on three sides only. Use as many staples as you want or need and be as neat as you would like. Since this will be the back, only you will be judging yourself on how pretty the back looks. Do not staple the fabric too close to the backing’s edge, but instead go inward. Stapling too close to the edge will make it harder to stuff in the next step.

Step 3

Fill the pocket you’ve created with plush stuffing. You can use anything to stuff the display as long as it’s soft enough for brooch pins to pierce through without effort, that will last and that will keep the display sufficiently full. When stuffing, do your best to make it even, avoiding having one area fatter than others – cut up the stuffing if that makes things easier. Also, focus your stuffing on the middle and leave the edges a little flatter as the frame will cover some of it and you still want it all to fit back in.

Step 4

Once you’ve filled your pocket in, pull the fabric back over the backing and staple securely. Put it back in the frame, secure and you’re done!

Finished product

This is a really inexpensive way of creating a display for your brooches and badges that’s also so easy to customise. You can get a picture frame from a charity shop and either use it as is or decorate further yourself. It’s also a great way to display items that’ll work even for those who are short on space, as you could use frames that are meant to be hung on the wall rather than stand on a shelf. If you use something sturdier to stuff the frame, you could even put some corkboard pins in there and create a lovely display for your necklaces too, so this is a truly versatile thing.

Hopefully you have found this useful. I know that with Christmas season coming up, some of you will want to be crafting presents for your friends and family, so this could be a cheap yet practical and pretty option. It’s also incredibly quick to make, this was a literal ten minute project, and could be a way of giving old frames a new life.

Total cost of making: I forgot what some of the things cost, but my best guestimate is that it cost me something like £1.94 = £1.50 for the frame forever ago and £0.44 for the quarter of the fabric that I had bought. I already had a stapler and the stuffing, but even including the stuffing you’re not looking at more than £2.50 per display stand and the frame will be your most expensive part.

Have you been crafting lately? Or maybe you’ve discovered a great new way of displaying some of your Lolita bits and bobs? I’d love to hear about either of those!