Threads and Pencils: The Wedding Flower...mini tutorial

My younger brother and his long time love are getting married in September so weddings have been on my mind a lot lately. It's been a while since I have creating anything with a wedding theme but I have wanted to give a large flower clutch a try. Like most of my creations, I had a vision and wanted to see if I could make it reality.

After I had already cut and singed the first part I thought what a great opportunity to make another tutorial. So, I'm just going to call this a mini-tut because I didn't get pictures of each step of the process but pretty much enough to get you on your way.

First off, I cut a long strip of satin fabric, about 70" long and about 3" wide. On one of the cut sides, I cut in a sort of a rolling wave pattern since no flower is ever perfect in form. I singed, VERY Carefully, both sides and the ends so that the satin does not fray. Because I was using my bigger candle and because the winds picked up, I did get some black on my satin but later in the tutorial you'll see that I went back in, cut off the black and took a lighter to the fabric to singed it without the burn marks. It's a much more aesthetically pleasing look without burn marks.

I hope the picture tutorial will get you on your way to make a large ornate flower to adorn a bag, a pillow or even a shirt! If you make something using this tutorial, please feel free to share a picture. If creativity is not your thing but you like the final product, you can find it on my Etsy page as well.

♡ ąℓexąnʠяą

Here is my 70" long b 3" wide strip, already singed on the ends and sides. Use a wide running stitch along the bottom. You will gather this to help make the flower gently ruffle by pulling one thread and pushing the ruffles down as you make them.

Which ever fabric you have decided to attach your flower to, make sure it is stiff enough to handle the work, turning, and stitching you will be doing. I started with a small circle first and worked my way out making sure not to get the already attached ruffles stuck in my stitch. It would probably be easier to start this flower from the biggest point and circle in to the smallest point.

Here, I started stitching my flower to my main fabric.

I gently turn the fabric to continue stitching the ruffle on the bag in a circular pattern.

Here is how it looks all stitched. Cut the extra threads to make a nice neat appearance.

Next, your going to want to cut some satin circles, making each circle smaller than the one before. Make sure you base circle is large enough to cover the center.

Take those circles and carefully singe them. (please make sure you are very careful doing this!!) I use a small tea light candle, which I let burn for a few minutes before I take my fabric to it. I hold the fabric about 1 inch away from the flame, it takes longer but this process is better than burning the fabric.

Once you've singed all your circles, place them in the circle until they look nice to you. I had mine all stacked on top of one another but I didn't like the "perfect" look so I randomly placed them.

Sew them in place. I made a square to make sure I stitched all the petals down.

Now to get rid of those unsightly burn marks, I took my scissors and clipped away and I carefully used a lighter in the areas that were clipped to seal the fabric.