Monday Project - Felt Flowers

With the way winter's been bringing extra cold, snow, and cloudy days, I thought we could all use some flowers to brighten things up!  These are made from felt - you can use the ordinary kind from your local craft store or go all out and make them from 100% wool felt.  I used a sewing machine to add the decorative stitching, however, you could do this just as easily with hand embroidery.

Materials:
*felt
*18 gauge florist wire
*florist tape
*buttons
*glue stick
*wire cutters
*small pliers
*patterns



Rose:

1.  Using the patterns here, cut 1 bud grouping, 6 small petals, 5 medium petals, and 5 large petals for the rose.  Cut 5 sepals (the little leaves that hold the flower) and 4 leaves from green felt.

2.  Starting at the small end, roll the bud grouping piece tightly.

Sew together with a few stitches on the bottom.

3.  Put one small petal in between two bud petals and tack into place with a few stitches on the bottom.

Overlap the second petal over the first petal and tack into place.  Repeat with the last four petals.

4.  Put one medium petal in between two small petals and tack into place with a few stitches on the bottom.  Repeat with all the medium petals.

5.  Put one large petal in between two medium petals and tack into place with a few stitches on the bottom.  Repeat with all the large petals.

6.  Put one sepal on the rose as show below and sew into place going only halfway up.  Move thread to other side and sew down the other side of the sepal.  Attach all sepals this way, adjusting to make sure they solidly go around the rose.

7.  Bend a small piece of a florist wire in a 90 degree angle.  Hold all the sepal bottoms between your fingers and thumb and insert the wire into their center.

8.  Cut off a few inches of florist tape and wrap tightly around the sepal bottoms.  I use a little bit of glue stick at the beginning and end of florist tape to help it stick better.

9.  Cut about 18 inches of florist tape.  Beginning at the top of the stem, wind the tape around the wire at an angle.  I find holding the tape in one place and twirling the stem easiest.

10.  Put two leaf pieces together and sew a decorative stitch (on my Brother, I used 29 with a 1.4 length and 1.5 width) around the edges and up the center, leaving a gap at the bottom.  Insert a piece of florist wire into this gap, pushing it to the end of the leaf.  Repeat with the other leaf.

11.  Twist the wire that comes out of the leaves around the stem.  Cut about a foot of florist tape.  Cover the leaf wires, starting about 2 inches above the leaves and continuing down the stem.

12.  Admire your rose!

Daisy:

1.  Using the patterns, cut two back petal groupings, two front petal groupings, two centers, four sepals, and four leaves.

2.  Put two back petal groupings together and sew around the edges with a decorative stitch.  Repeat with the two front petal groupings and the center.  Layer as shown below and attach in the center with a button.

3.  Sew sepals together on the edges as shown below.

4.  Attach the sepals to the daisy by sewing across the tops.

5.  Hold the sepals together and attach a stem (same way as with the rose).

6.  Complete the leaves the same way as with the rose.

Pansy:

1.  Cut 10 large petals (I used two different colors - 3 of one and 2 of another), 10 small petals, one center, 5 sepals, and four leaves.

2.  With two petals together, apply decorative stitching to the large petals.  Tack together as shown below.

3.  Repeat with the small petals and tack to the large petals.

4.  Sew two centers together and attach to the petals with a button.

5.  Attach the sepals as shown below.

6.  Complete the stem and leaves in the same way as with the rose.

When I made more flowers to fill out the vase, I left the leaves off of some to avoid having too many leaves jammed in.

Happy Creating!  Deborah