Pretty fabric flowers

I pinned this beautiful ‘vintage fabric flower’ some time ago, thinking how effective it looked and relatively easy to make:

Original image and instructions here: http://www.easy-home-made.com/vintage-fabric-flower.html.

Finding some fabric wasn’t a problem, but that ‘eyelash yarn’ well, that posed a bit of a problem. I was sure I’d seem it before, but doing a search on the name didn’t bring up much. I guess it’s called something else here in Australia 🙂

A recent ‘Op Shop Hop’ (as my Sis-in-law has named it!) yielded success! In one shop there was a box of balls of wool, yarn, and lace, some of it very tangled. But I spotted some of this yarn and there was no way I was leaving without it! I spent some time untangling it, but in the end I had to cut it off. I had most of it by that stage anyway. Then it was off to the counter to find out how much they were going to charge me for this little gem. Many of the other items in the store seemed excessively priced, and there was no sign on this box which is a pet hate for me. If a shop can’t be bothered putting a price on something, then generally I can’t be bothered finding someone to ask. Do you feel that way too? Anyway, I nearly fell over when she told me it would set me back a whole 10c. Yes, that’s right – ten cents!!

So now I was ready to attempt this flower. And it was indeed easy and fairly quick to make.

As mentioned in the instructions linked above, I just eyeballed the fabric circles and they were certainly not neat. I didn’t want the yarn sticking out as far as she has, so I made mine a little shorter. I also only used 4 strands altogether – 3 on the bottom and one on the top.

I did this on a hot, windy afternoon. I recommend not doing the same. That little flame on my candle flickered like nobody’s business, surprisingly enough. You can’t really see in this photo, but I ‘oversinged’ some parts of the petals and they are a little brown 😦 It also made singeing the centres of the circles very difficult. But it’s all texture in the end, that’s what I tell myself! I stapled the layers together, following the instructions, then glued the sparkly bit in the middle. I was pretty pleased with my first effort:

I stuck a safety pin through the back and attached it to my cardigan.

My next effort included some personalization. I decided to substitute layers of tulle for every second layer of fabric.  I used my trusty hot glue gun to put it all together this time. And I had enough forethought to glue on a brooch back. I really like the extra texture from the tulle, it’s quite subtle:

My next two versions included more personalization. I tried to give the flowers petals. For the first one I cut quite pronounced petal shapes around my fabric circles. The tulle I left round, but slightly smaller than the fabric circles. It was quite fiddly singeing around these shapes, although I had started with smaller circles so perhaps that made a difference.

The second one I just cut a wavy shape out of my circle. It was much easier to singe, although I always have trouble getting the middle singed correctly. Even though I don’t intentionally cut my circles slightly different sizes, by the time I have shaped them I can see that they are. So I make sure to put the larger pieces on the bottom and the smaller on the top.  And they look pretty cute in pink 🙂

After 4 attempts, I think I have found a design that I am very happy with – although I reserve the right to alter it later 🙂
What do you think of these flowers? Have you made something like this?

* Linked up with Mimi’s A Tray of Bliss, Being a Wordsmith – Traffic Jam Weekend Linky Party,