I think this tutorial has been waiting for some sunshine - sewing all of these colours whilst sitting in the sun was so much fun - the perfect crafty pick-me-up!
If you would like to make your own bunch of ever-lasting flowers then this is the blog post for you!
You will need ::
felt - in all your favourite colours
buttons - in all sorts of sizes and colours, the more the merrier I think!
fabric scraps - if you wish
jug/vase - anything to display them in
glue - if you prefer to glue, or you can stitch
thread - in pretty colours
scissors - of course!
felt stems - in various shades of green
wire & wire cutters - so you can be a florist for the day
AND this pattern ::
which needs to be printed out as an A4 sheet
To start - cut out lots of felt flower shapes using the templates. There are no set colour combinations, or any limit to which shapes to use - the choice is entirely yours - when cutting the felt out I cut two layers for each flower shape, but only one for each circle - the circle flowers are all made with 3 different size circles which makes them sturdy.
To give the circle flowers some more oomph I stitched all three layers together in the centre with a ring of running stitches (imagine there is a 2p piece in the middle of the flower and stitch around it)...pull the thread tight and the flower will gather and become 3d.
Once all your flower shapes have been cut out and you've gathered your circle flowers you can start embellishing - you can add buttons, fabric scraps, fabric yo-yos, embroidery stitches - whatever you fancy doing will work!
fabric yo-yo with a teeny tiny button inside & stitches on the petals
two colours of thread alternated
ric rac poking out between the layers
Once all your flowers are embellished you need to attach the second layer (the back) of your flower shapes (remember you cut 2 of each earlier?) I used felt glue but you can stitch them together round the edge if you prefer.
To attach the flower to the stem I used a big slip stitch - it's easy to sew through the edge of the stem but impossible to sew through the centre of it because it's so tough! If you are careful you won't see any of this stitching from the front. Obviously I did it in beige so you can see it - green thread would look better ;-)
Next you need to wire them - just like a florist would. I had some wire & wire cutters in my old art box, if you don't have any ask around - someone you know will have some in the shed somewhere! I cut a long length and folded it in half, carefully poked it through my stitching (see the little loop on the left?) and then wrapped and wrapped and wrapped until the whole stem was wired.
If you have used a lot of buttons and your flowers are heavy you will need more wire - less heavy flowers don't need so much
I left all of my stems quite long and folded them at the bottom so they are the perfect heights for my vases - that way I can re-arrange in the future and none of them will be too short - of course I only figured this out half way through, but most of them are left long!
I filled my vases with buttons because I like buttons, but you don't need to do that...nor do you need to get out in the sunshine and take photos of your flowers, but if you do I (and my readers!) would love to see them!
So there we have it - my long time in the making tutorial - it's not really a tutorial with photographs of step by step instructions, more a gathering of ideas and methods to achieve them, but I hope it inspires you all the same :-)
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