The complete fabric flower bouquet from beginning to vows.
Part 1
Start with circles cut in 2", 3" and 4" diameters from a variety of fabric scrap fabrics.
Preferably synthetics because they will melt and not burn.
Carefully burn the edges by waving close to a candle flame.
Begin by layering petal after petal and stitching together.
Here's the secret:
Off set and use your burned circles as petals. Do not just center them one on top of the other.
Continue added petals and increasing them in size.
Petal after petal, stitch after stitch.
Don't worry about "messy stitches...they will all be covered up.
The goal is to get everything to hold together.
Now is the time to pull out all the fun brooches, buttons and broken earrings
to add to the centers of your flowers.
Part 2
After the petals are all stitched together and centers added, you're ready to attach a backing.
You can create them into corsages at this point by attaching brooch pins. Or add loops to attach bobby pins to wear in your hair.
In order to add stems for a bouquet, this is the easiest way I could come up with.
Supplies needed:
Wire 20 gauge
Florest tape
Needle and thread
Long nose pliers
And always a good pair of scissors
Bend wire in half and twist the entire length down,
leaving a loop at the top about the size of a quarter.
On the back side of your flower, behind one of the petals, insert the wire.
Hand stitch around the wire through the back petal and into the petals on the other side of the loop.
There are so many layers of petals that you won't see the stitches on the front.
This will hold the wire and flower in place.
Now bend the wire stem and loop 90 degrees.
Beginning about 2" down from the flower begin wrapping the floral tape up to the flower then back down. Pulling tight and twisting until you come to the end.
Cover the entire stem.
I did all my stems this way. When I decided how to arrange them, I added a thicker fake flower stem to some of the flowers beginning about 3 1/2' down from the flower base.
I only added this stem to a select few.
This gave some girth to my stems for the bouquet to be held but not too thick.
On the backs to cover up the stitching add a silk leaf or two with the glue gun.
You really can't see the backs when there done but,
you'll know that it would hold up in a 4-H fair judges critique!
Now you're ready to assemble them together.
I added a few silks in with my fabric flowers and brooches. I felt like it needed that third element to give it textural interest.
Wrap all the stems together with florist tape.
I covered my stems completely by wrapping with lime green cotton ribbon and added the pearls to the ends of the loops.
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Cuddle Gram
I was all over the Internet looking for easy clothing labels without having to put out a large financial commitment. Especially since Federal Trade regulations require fiber content and washing instructions. Huge print runs for each fiber blend can become expensive.
There are many different inkjet fabrics on the market but, there are only a few that fit my needs.
is one of the best brands I've found for a couple of reasons.
Second, this is the only brand that I can find that is BOTH hand washable and dry cleanable, but only if you follow directions.
I laid out my graphics so that after it's folded in half, the back side when flipped up will have all the washing and fiber information.
After rinsing, I laid mine out onto a clean towel to absorb some of water before ironing.
Press hot.
Cut by using a straight edge and rotary cutter. This way you can get a VERY clean line.
Using these tools instead of scissors, will help cut "on grain" to eliminate fraying.
I finger pressed in half and folded in about a 1/4" on both top edges.
This will give you a clean area to hand or machine stitch your labels in.
They hold up well and do not seem to be fading.