Polka dots are adorable and seem like an easy pattern to create but drawing a perfect circle freehand is near impossible. So, what if you want to create a polka dot pattern on a pair of shoes, a tote bag, or other surface? Here’s a DIY tutorial on how to use magnets to create a pattern of perfect circles:

Supplies:

Directions:

  1. After you’ve selected a canvas for a polka dot pattern, you can buy neodymium magnets shaped like circles. Depending on the type of pattern you want to create, you can get any size circle. A larger polka dot pattern would require a bigger circle magnet and wouldn’t take as long as a small polka dot pattern using small magnets.
  2. Hold one magnet on the backside of the surface and the circle magnet on the other side. The magnets should attract through the material and stay in place.
  3. Now, you can trace the magnet to create a perfect circle. You can keep moving the magnets and tracing them until you have a complete pattern of polka dots.
  4. Once your polka dot pattern is complete, you can use your painting supplies to decorate the circles you created with magnets.
You can use this tutorial to trace other shapes as well. For example, instead of making polka dots, you can make a pattern of triangles by gluing a triangle shape to one of the magnets. When the glue is dry, all you have to do is follow the same instructions except instead of tracing circle magnets, you’ll trace a triangle shape attached to a magnet. This magnetic pattern method can be used for shoes or a tote bag or even furniture if you have really strong magnets. What other patterns and crafts can you come up with using this tutorial?