For Halloween my roommates and I dressed up as Hogwarts students (I know, I know, we're great). This meant that I completely destroyed a button-down white shirt to put underneath my gray sweater. The hoarder that I am means this shirt has been hanging around my room, slowly and surely being taken apart as I figure out crafts. Tonight that shirt got one step closer to disappearing as I made a fabric flower.
I made the pillow on the left near the beginning of the semester- isn't it adorable? I made a bunch of my little flowers, used a button for the center, and hand stitched stems going down. You can't see it in the picture, but there are leaves near the bottom of the pillow. My only issue was that I had to hand stuff the pillow because it's an odd size. I looked for a pillow form everywhere- even online which shows how desperate I was- and just couldn't find one. I made the flower I made tonight into a cute hair-tie that Nicole took. I'll just have to make another one, I guess.
So here's the shirt. I always feel guilty when I destroy things, but I rationalized it by telling myself it was this or to the thrift store.
I cut out a large square for the base flower. You can also trace a circle using anything you have lying around- for my pillow I traced CDs, jar lids, cups, pretty much anything in order to get different sized flowers. The issue was that I had to work hard to cover up the marker marks with my center flower. I decided for my hair piece to try out another strategy.
I folded my square in half, then in half again.
I trimmed the sides into an arc from corner to corner.
When you unfold it you have a circle! Easy (and round!) as pie. It doesn't matter if it's not quite perfect- when you stitch it it'll turn out alright.
Take your needle and thread and bring it in and out around the edge of the flower. I tend to fill the needle with the fabric to keep the pleats around the same size.
See how you're bringing the thread around the outside edge of the flower?
Pull it tight and you'll get the outside (or inside...) of your flower. Knot it and you're ready for #2!
This square is going to become the inside of my flower, so I made it smaller than the other one.
Fold and cut to make a smaller circle.
Do the same thing as you did for the other flower. Here are my two parts next to one another.
After that I sewed them together. Make sure you place your flower top exactly where you want it- I've gotten some rather lopsided flowers. I stitched it a few times to make it really secure.
You can then add embellishments to the center. I threaded the beads one at a time and sewed them tight. It was actually easier than the beads, but I wish I had a different color flower or beads. Nicole's talking about buying some black dye to redye some black jeans, and if that ever happens I might toss her hair tie in with it. I think it would make a cool effect.
After I had my beads stitched on, I stitched my flower onto a hair tie. I don't know if this matters or not, but I was careful to not have my needle and thread go through the actual elastic. I was figuring that that could make the hair tie die quicker (I'm a poet and didn't even know it!).
Ta-da! How cute is this? I might do smaller ones and attach to bobby pins or hair clips, or you could hot glue or sew one to a headband.
And here is my adorable pillow! I think this is one of my favorite things I've made- the pillow was pretty gross before I added my sweet crafty-ness. And it cost so little- I took the pillow from our basement at home where it was living a life in hiding. I think my parents got it at an auction in a box lot for a buck or two. Ah, deals!
And this is why my roommate doesn't mind being a model. She has recently begun playing some Avengers facebook game. Whenever I make fun of her she reminds me that I played Farm Town religiously for quite an extended period of time. I used to hide that but I'm proud of my ability to drop the addiction. Yes, I'm part of Farm Town Anonymous.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more crafts- what else can I do with paper towel tubes? Stay tuned!
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