Back in the summer (I use the term loosely), I attended a class at the lovely Grace and Jacob, taught by the very talented Bryony to learn how to make fabric flowers, having seen a sample in the shop and been fascinated by them.
It wasn’t nearly as hard as I’d thought it might be, and within an hour we’d all made our first flower.
Which was soon joined by a second, with pointy petals this time.
And then a third, with pointy folded petals. We sewed pins on the backs, and they’ve been happily adorning my denim jacket ever since – and are only a little the worse for wear!
But what I really wanted to do was to make a bunch of flowers to put in a vase. I’d chosen these fabrics because they’re from the same range I used to make baby quilts last year, and I had leftovers. Which I attacked as soon as I got home, and before I knew it I had lots of flowers – it’s strangely addictive, especially when you realise that you can combine different shapes and sizes of petals, and mix fabrics, the possibilities are endless.
A few close ups of different combinations and sizes of petals –
I covered the stems of these with florists tape, but it was horrible sticky stuff (or at least the roll I got was!) and since then I’ve only used it for holding bunches together.
Like this one. A tiny bunch (the whole thing including the vase is only about seven inches tall) using silk leftovers from the cushion I made last year. These flowers are great for fabric scraps, I’ll never throw any away again! And as the scraps get smaller, so do the flowers…
One thing I did find with the silk though was that it frayed like mad, so when I decided to make a bigger bunch for my mum’s birthday, I used bondaweb on the back of the silk before cutting it to hold it together, which worked much better, and stiffened the silk slightly too.
I also had leftovers of some Kaffe Fassett paperweight fabric in red, so I bought a couple more fat quarters in lime green and blue to go with it, and made this bunch. It was going to be for my desk at work, but we’ve recently adopted a clear desk policy (which is a complete nightmare to untidy me) in preparation to our move to a new headquarters building where we’ll all be hotdesking. I am so not looking forward to that! But anyway, back to the flowers.
My next project is to make a Christmas wreath, using a polystyrene circle. I’ve made five flowers for it so far, I should be able to make enough in the next two months to finish it!
They’ve all got a u-shaped piece of wire on the back, going through the shank of the central button, so they’ll just push into the polystyrene. Well, that’s the theory, anyway!
Minniemoll knits and crafts 