Packing Flowers

Jewelry
65 Comments

FlowerProject2

Today I'm heading over to the NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City for a live interview & some crafty kibitzing on KSL's Studio 5 with hosts, Brooke & Darin. We're making fast, fabulous, fabric flowers. Fashionable too — and friendly.

The
spicy flower above turned out perfectly for the red & olive reverse
of my red Marlo Bloom bag (shown on the cover of the Marlo Bloom sewing pattern). It takes my handbag right into Fall, all wooly & frayed, with felted houndstooth leaves and raw silk at the center.

FlowerProject1

I
also played around with some of my favorite vintage buttons &
millinery supplies, such as these green ceramic flower stamen. On the
show, we're making medium-sized flowers, but as I couldn't stick to one
size for the samples, I'm listing measurements for the large purse
flower and the small, blue headband flower as well. Of course, make
whatever size flower you wish & stitch it where you like.

I say everywhere.

FlowerProject4a

Pop Garden Scrap Flower Tutorial

Medium Flower

1.  Tear a strip of printed cotton fabric 3" high by 20" wide. Pop Garden works.

FlowerTute1

2. 
With wrong sides together, fold fabric strip in half, as shown. Stitch
long, gathering stitch along matched torn edges, through both layers.
(For a torn-edge flower, stitch along folded edge, through both layers.)

FlowerTute2

3. 
Gently pull stitches as you sew, to gather fabric into a circle. Fasten
fabric circle at center with a couple of stitches. Secure & trim
thread.

FlowerTute3a

4. 
Of felt, cut three tiered circles — 2" wide, 1.75" wide, and 1.5"
wide. Notch edges of large & small circles. Remove all 'hanging
chads' of felt — we'll have none of that. Stack felt circles as shown.

FlowerTute4

5. 
Onto gathered fabric flower, layer stacked felt circles and a
decorative button or brooch. Stitch layers together at center several
times through button to secure. Conceal gathered edges at back of
flower by whip-stitching a circle of scrap felt to the back of the
flower. Then, attach a sew-on pin-back, hair clip, ponytail elastic, TT
headband, bobbypin or barrette. And that's it. Easy-peasy.

FlowerTute5

For
your reference, the following chart shows the measurements used for the
other flowers featured in the photos above. The large flower is made by
stacking a folded piece of silk on top of the folded cotton print with
folds aligned. Gathering stitches are sewn through all layers, near the
fold. And the large flower spirals into several layers, unlike the
other two shown.

FlowerTute6a

I'm looking forward to meeting many of you at Friday's Start-up Princess event. If you're interested in last-minute registration, I've got a present for you — use code STUDIO5 for $10 off the registration fee. Or tune in to the show today, as two viewers will receive free tickets on air, valued at $99 each.

Also, there is an all-new category at The Heather Bailey Store.
See if you can spot it. I'm eager to post more, but need to rush off to
the station. Let's just say the new category ties in perfectly with
this tutorial and with more projects to come. I'll spill the beans in
my next post.

65 Comments

  2. Hmm so yummy! Love the felt, those colours are too beautiful to choose between them!! Will have to think thoroughly before picking some 🙂 Where did you get the houndstooth felt?

    Reply

  3. Good luck on your interview, and awesome flowers…I love them. I also am loving the new product in your store, just awesome. I can’t wait for some $$ so I can order, order, order!! Your creativity is so very inspiring!

    Reply

  5. Oh, wow! Thank you for sharing this tutorial. I love big, bright fabric flowers and these are beautiful. I’ll be making a bunch of these for sure. 🙂

    Reply

  9. H,
    I spotted it right away – Designer Felt! How very cool!
    Thanks so much for the fun tutorial. My DD started first grade today and I needed something to keep my mind busy from missing her too much. I may try my hand at these lovely ditties this very morning.

    Reply

  12. AH! Heather I am in love with you blog and your beautiful fabric! I just saw you on Studio 5, I will be ordering your fabric today for my business franco&leks!
    lindsey walker
    francoandleks.etsy.com

    Reply

  13. Hi Heather! Thanks for the tutorial! I’m confused on step 2 — should this say “wrong” sides together? I haven’t made one yet, but am trying to visualize the steps.
    Can’t wait to snap up some of your new felt! Thanks for making this available!
    Kathy

    Reply

  18. Thanks for the tutorial-I’m actually in the process of making some fabric flowers too-Your colors are great.
    I have a question that has nothing to do with this post…Did you ever make a pattern for the book bags you had on the cover of Mary Engelbreit magazine last year? Just wondering 🙂

    Reply

  21. Heather, you never cease to amaze me with keeping all of your projects so fresh and new! I can’t wait to try this version of the flower brooch. I’ve made lots of the others you had on the blog a while back, but I love the gathered look in these and the beautiful vintage pins (making mental note for my next flea market trip). I just ordered a set of bijou fabrics from Etsy, which will be perfect for this project. Thank you!!

    Reply

  23. Hi Heather! I loved hearing you at Touchpoint! (you were my fave) You are so beautiful and inspiring, and I love how “real” you are. Thanks for being willing to share!
    I told you this already, but I really appreciated your “ah ha” moments you shared. It is nice to know that I am not the only one that goes through that.
    I hope you’ve had a nice visit to Utah!

    Reply

  25. These flowers are truly creative and your comment that they fit ‘everywhere’ made me smile!!
    I can relate to your sentiment…
    A while ago I started making paper flowers for my child’s school theater. But they did not only go to the school play… we haven’t stop producing flowers and …. now they are EVERYWHERE, and in every shape and form!!
    Made with recycled papers, newsprint, colored paper, crepe paper, cardboard, and embellished with ‘you name what’….
    A free tutorial on ‘How to make basic tissue paper flowers’ is on my site.
    Rose
    http://www.Twitter.com/Freecraft

    Reply

  26. I watched Studio 5 and had no idea how easy peasy these flowers are to make. I will be making them by the dozen now. I feel lots of Christmas presents topped with these flowers happening this year. Soo sad to miss you at Startup Princess Touchpoint. I heard you did a wonderful presentation. Maybe next time you are in town we can go to lunch.
    xo April

    Reply

  29. Just wanted to thank you for being so gracious at the meet and greet at Material Girls on Saturday! My girls are having fun with their fancy new trash ties do’s and I am still blown away to have gotten a peek at your sketch book–thank you for sharing!! I’m so anxious to see your new patterns…

    Reply

  33. I’m currently writing a blog post about making different fabric flowers and I’d love to feature these. Do you mind if I use one of your pictures? I’ll credit you and give links to your blog! I just love your blog and I buy your fabrics all the time 😉

    Reply

  35. Love these! Could you further explain the large flower directions? I’m having trouble understanding this, “…stacking a folded piece of silk on top of the folded cotton print with folds aligned. Gathering stitches are sewn through all layers, near the fold.” Thanks

    Reply

  51. Before I’ll refer to the brooches themselves, I must say that the design of the explanation and the explanation itself are pretty cool, well done.
    Beyond that – The brooches you made are great ! -They’re suitable for almost everything – upscale clothes, everyday clothes, hats or even bags,really nice!

    Reply

  54. Try to follow the argument here. I’m the one who is arguing that we are headed for inflation. Ryan, is the one who thinks we are headed for continued deflation. No one is arguing that deflation, in sum, is not what we have now. Priced a house, car, TV, commodity lately? Packing Flowers. I have.

    Reply

  55. What a great idea! Packing Flowers.?
    I once took the time to post a point-by-point refutation of one of his posts as a comment. He simply truncated it down to one or two sentences and tried to disprove them (not even correctly!). I was unable to comment on that post again.
    Not being part of academia I don’t expect equal treatment, but it was still pretty low of him.

    Reply

  56. Do you think those flowers will also work if stitched to purses? My wife’s a budding designer and she’s looking for ways to convert her lady purses to something that can be appreciated by kids (to give as gifts). She’d like to finish this project before she goes to Canada next month.

    Reply

  62. Just made one of these for a hairband, great instructions thanks! the only thing was that it was a bit big for a hairband, i halved the width of it to 10 inches and it was perfect, 1 piece of felt and a button later and I have something really pretty

    Reply

  63. hey dear, thank you so much. it save my budgets to go out to buy ready made fabric flower. gonna use it for my plain olive cardigan. 🙂

    Reply

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