DIY Hexie Patchwork Clock

There’s something about hexagonal patchwork that just looks so beautiful, isn’t there? I’m always being inspired by the hexie projects I see online (take Lucie’s hexie glasses case, Sairer’s patchwork cushion and even my own hexie patchwork knitting bag) so, for my friend’s birthday this month, I chose to put my inspiration to good use and made her this fantastic hexie patchwork clock!

The idea for the clock came from Owen’s Olivia’s blog here but it’s easy enough to freestyle – I downloaded a hexagon template from the internet (these ones are about 3cm big but you can pick whatever scale you want) and then cut out 61 of them from a sheet of paper. Once you’ve done that, you use each hexagon as a template to cut out a piece of fabric – make each fabric hexie about 1cm bigger than the template all the way around. Next, fold the fabric around the paper template and baste it in place.

Making hexie patchwork is quite time consuming as it’s all done by hand, so it requires a fair bit of patience. It’s a great little project to do whilst sitting in front of the TV on an evening though! I found the repetitive motions of cutting and basting quite therapeutic. Once you’ve got all your hexagons done, it’s then time to sew them together – I started at the bottom corner and just built up from there. Remember to use tiny stitches very close to the edge so that they don’t show through too much on the other side!

I embroidered the numbers 12, 3, 6 and 9 around the edges of my patchwork clock face and then carefully attached the whole thing to a piece of thick cardboard that I’d cut to the same shape- double sided tape does the job just fine. And then came the hardest part of all – attaching the clock mechanism! You can get hold of these very easily on the internet (mine was just a few pounds from eBay) but they do require a fair bit of bashing and crying… you poke a hole through the centre of the clock and then push the handles onto the base very hard until they click and sit squarely on your clock. Next, simply pop in a battery and you’re away! Well, I wish it was that easy – my husband had to give me a bit of help because I was about to throw a tantrum, but it’s ok, we fixed it in the end 😉

What do you think? Have you ever tried hexie patchwork before?