Friday, March 18, 2011

Flower Clippy Hair Bow…

 
A humongous shout out to my sister in law S in Colorado for teaching me how to make these!
To start, you need to choose your fabric. For this flower I used three different coordinating fabrics, but I’ve made these with only one fabric or pattern and they’re still cute. You will need to cut out six circles from your fabric.
 
044
 
I used a small plastic Ikea bowl as my circle template and my circles were about 3 ½ inches in circumference. The bigger the bowl, the bigger your flower will turn out.
 
046
 Take one of your circles, fold it in half and iron it flat.

047

 Holy schnikes, my ironing board looks dirty.

Okay, well… ignore that. Fold it in half again and iron it so it looks like a little pizza slice; these will be the petals of the flower.

 049

Do that to all six of your circles.
Note to self: quit drinking (and spilling) coffee on ironing board.
 
052
Next, cut about 8 inches of thread and pull a knot in one end. Starting at the bottom (the area of fabric that you cut), weave a stitch along the edge.
067
073
Grab the next petal and repeat with the same piece of thread until all the petals are connected. Gently pull the thread, bunching up the bottom of the petals.
 
075

 

CAUTION: Pulling too hard may break your thread… uh… yeah.

But that’s never happened to me… I wouldn’t try using the same thread and breaking it over and over, because I learn from my mistakes the first time. Or the seventh.

Whatever. I now use a polyester cotton blend thread when making my bows because it’s much sturdier and I’m less likely to get frustrated and throw the thread across the room.

Okay, I’ve never really thrown the thread. Talked threateningly and asked questions of it… ‘What is your problem, thread?!?’ ‘ARGH!!! Why won’t you just do what I want?’ Yes. That I have done. Moving on…

Once all the petals are scrunched on the thread, you need to bring the two end petals together and sew them. This will create a rounded flower shape with a little hole in the center. I fill this hole with scraps of fabric or felt; that will help the flower keep its shape.
 
077

Now you get to choose something to cover the center of the flower. I chose a button, but you could use a yo yo or anything sized right. Get creative!

 

Woo Hoo!

My flower is finished. I used this one to embellish an apron I made for Lovely L’s 11th birthday.

Hmmm… I need to think about cleaning up before taking these pictures. Or at least shoving things out of the way.  Unless you’re really interested in what kind of vacuum I use.  I bought it ‘cause it’s purple.  I can’t make this stuff up, people… 

085

 

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...