Felt Dahlia Tutorial

Photo credit: Megan Reardon

I made a felt dahlia just like that, and believe it or not, it was not nearly as difficult as it looks! (I would post a picture, but the ones I attempted to take with my high-tech camera phone just didn't turn out so well).

Find the tutorial here: Mother's Day Corsage

The directions are very clear and easy to follow.

My input is this: Don't stress about cutting the petals perfectly. Once they are glued on, no one will be able to tell if yours aren't the exact shape of the ones in the tutorial. My other tip: Use a glue gun. Megan Reardon, who wrote the tutorial, recommends using a glue called "Fabri-tac", and she says it takes awhile to set. Glue guns make my life so much simpler, and the hot glue bonds to felt like no one's business.

Try it out! You'll be impressed with your abilities when you're finished!

Photo credit: Megan Reardon

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Felt Flower Tutorial

I love making things out of felt! It's so easy to work with because it practically holds itself together as you go, and there are so many pretty colors that the possibilities are nearly endless!

Today I thought I'd offer you a felt flower tutorial for these little beauties:

What can you do with them? I think they would make a darling headband for a little girl-- in any color or combination of colors-- or perhaps one or two would make a nice brooch for a cardigan or a wool coat. Another idea is a yearn wreath. I have seen these wreaths becoming more and more popular, and I think I'm going to try my hand at creating a spring wreath... perhaps something like one of these:

I think they're so pretty, and just perfect for spring! Those wreaths are from an Etsy seller called Anna Hailey.

Moral of the story, there's lots you can do with a felt flower!

So on to the tutorial!

Materials:

• Hot glue gun
• Green felt
• Yellow felt
• Any other color that you like for the flower petals
• Scissors

 

 

Aren't they cute! I can't wait to experiment with making a felt wreath... possibly using this style of flowers. If you make one (or more!) of these, tell me what you did with it, and how your project turned out!


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Flowers from Napkins!

Months ago, my friend Megan made these gorgeous flowers for a triple baby shower at work.

 

She showed me how to make them, and she showed me the blog that taught her how to make them. That was in April or so, and come June, did I remember how to make them? No. Could I find the blog anywhere online? Nope. But I wanted to make them to decorate the rehearsal dinner for my brother's wedding, so I experimented a little and finally figured it out. Since I couldn't find the original tutorial online, and as I am in the process of making more napkin flowers for a friend's wedding this weekend, I thought I'd offer up my own tutorial.

Step 1. Gather supplies. You will need:

• Two sets of napkins: one pack of dinner-sized, and one pack of dessert-sized. Chinet and Vanity Fair brands work well for the larger size. I like to use white for the larger size and yellow for the smaller size.
• 22-gauge floral wire. You can get this in the fake flower section of any craft store, like Michael's or Jo-Ann's.
• Pliers that will clip wire. I used my jewelry pliers, but any cutting pliers will work.
• Scissors

Supplies

Step 2.  Cut lengths of wire.

• I recommend cutting lengths of wire about eight inches long. It doesn't matter if they're longer, but the shorter ones will be hard to wrap around the flower. Cut as many wires as the number of flowers you plan to make.

My wire, all cut into nice pieces

 Step 3. Make a flower!

• Lay out three large napkins on top of one another; then lay out two smaller napkins centered on top of the big ones.

•  Fold the napkins like an accordion, creasing each edge as you go, until it looks like this:

•  Now you need to trim the ends into a rounded shape. It's easiest to do this one set at a time. So take the yellow napkins off of the white ones and press them back into their accordion folds. You will cut all the edges at once. 

Take off the yellow set and fold them back into their accordion shape

Holding the ends all together, trim them into a rounded shape

•  Once both ends of the yellow set are trimmed, set it aside and trim the ends of the white set of napkins the same way you trimmed the yellow.

Trim the white napkins the same as you did the yellow. You can see the trimmed yellow ones in the background. 

•  Now that all the ends are trimmed, fit the yellow napkins and the white napkins back together like so:

• Fold everything back into its accordion shape and pinch the middle. You will now wrap the middle with wire to keep everything together. 

• When you wrap the wire, you will want to make a little loop at the back of your flower with the wire. That way, you will have a way to tie your flower to something-- either a garland (like in the very first photo) or if you are going to be using the flowers as centerpieces (like my friend will at her wedding), you will be able to tie the flower to a small pebble so it won't blow away or move easily.
  
• Begin wrapping the wire. When you have used up about half of the wire, make a small loop at the back of your flower, and continue wrapping until all the wire has been used up. Make sure the wire is nice and tight. 

Beginning to wrap the wire

Leaving some wire sticking up to twist the loop

Just give the sticking-up-part a good twist or two, and you will have a nice loop.

•  Your flower should look like this now:

 

•  It's time to ruffle it up so it looks like a flower! Work slowly and carefully so you don't rip a layer. One layer at a time, pull each layer up and toward the center of the flower. Don't be afraid to pull it until it is nice and snug! 

Pulling up the first layer

• Keep pulling up layers one at a time until the whole flower is ruffled up! 

One yellow side ruffled up

Now both yellow sides

Starting on the white part

Done!

•  Fluff and adjust the petals of your flower until it looks just the way you want. 

Enjoy!