How to make that great flower
How to make that great flower. Yes. The one that several of you have asked about. Remember this post from days of yore? It was just a fun way to put a necklace together with materials that were stashed in my craft room of war and delight.
Well–you will be all kinds of excited to know that I’m actually-factually getting around to the tutorials people have asked for.
–the gray flower (that’s what we’re doing right now)
–the felt flower pillow
–the tiny, ruffle skirt
–the framed mirror
The tiny ruffle skirt is next on the docket–aaaand we’ll go from there.
[It will take me longer to write this post than it did to put the flower together–which being translated correctly would mean that it’s a quick project. Can I hear an “Hallelujah!” for the quick projects of the universe?]
Here’s what we’re making:
It’s a 2 3/4″ flower with a random fabulous button in the center.
Here’s what you’ll need:
[By-the-way, these are the measurements I used. Moi. Me and me. There is an abundance of modifications you can make to the flower. The flower of power. Mostly say that last part like that one California governor who was born in a different country and sometimes was a shape-shifting fighter dude in movies. It will be worth it to find out who that is. Wait–if you don’t know who that is, stop reading this blog and go find out. You’ll be back. ~grin~]
–a 2″x 19″ piece of knit fabric
[It doesn’t need to be knit. It could be cotton, tulle, burlap, lace, ribbon…]
–a 1 1/2″ x 3″ piece of felt that will be cut into one piece that’s 1″ x 1 1/2″ and the other will be cut into an oval/circle which becomes the base of your flower
–thread to match
–a button
[Or a bead, a charm, a pencil eraser, an earring…]
Everything but the pencil eraser.
–a glue gun
–glue for the glue gun
–a clip for the back of the flower
–a clip for the back of the flower
–careful fingers
You could easily sew the gathering stitch with a needle and thread–especially because it’s only 19″ of fabric. I used the sewing machine because I used the sewing machine and wasn’t in the mood to be a pioneer gal.
Use a basting stitch (it’s the biggest stitch on my machine) and sew smack dab down the middle.
[I dream of having a Bernina. Not a banana. A Bernina.]
Now, pull that piece of thread and gather until the strip of material is about 14″ long.
Pick an edge. Either edge.
Now pick a side. Either side.
Fold over the two edges like I happily tried to depict in the photo directly below.
Start to fold the burgeoning flower in half–the long way. You want those two triangles to fold in against each other.
That point will be the center of your flower.
I grab the point with my right hand and wrap with my left. You just need to figure out what works for you. This is the part where you just fiddle around with wrapping the material around the center until you like what it looks like.
Continue to wrap.
There’s no glue applied yet in this picture. That won’t happen until the fabric looks like a flower and there’s no more wrapping to be done.
Unless you want to glue it–because you’re the sheriff of deciding. When you’ve found the perfect center of your flower, plunk a spot of glue in an inconspicuous spot and it won’t be moving around when you wrap.
Hopefully your glue gun is ready to go because that’s where we’re at.
Cut a 1″ x 1 1/2″ piece of your felt. Use the remaining part to cut out an oval/circle to fit on the bottom of your flower. (It hides any unsightly edges, keeps the flower in its flower shape, and becomes the spot you glue the clip to.)
Glue it to the bottom of your flower.
Cover the other piece of felt with the hot glue. Do this quickly or else it will harden.
Open the hair clip/alligator jaw thingy and carefully slide the felt between the opened sides of the clip. Chop-chop-fast-like-a-bunny glue the second piece of felt to the oval piece.
You can open the clip to make sure the glue doesn’t harden. It’s not a huge deal if you forget that part–you’ll just have to use a fingernail to scrape the dried glue from the clip.
There you go.
I usually add a pin. It’s unclear to me why I didn’t. Hmm. I think I need to remedy that.And there you go–a beautifully wrapped flower.
That’s exactly how to make that flower.
~grin~
And that’s a wrap.
As in:
As in:
Buh-dum-bum.
And just so you know–that flower pillow is finally next on the list. (For you Lynne–just for you.)
what do you think?