A very special couple just had a wonderful celebration - namely a 60th wedding anniversary - a truly great occasion. . . wow. !!
I wanted to make a personal anniversary gift and decided on a mini bouquet.
As I was travelling to the event I was not sure how fresh the flowers would be on arrival so decided I would try my very first fabric bouquet.
Here is how it went !!
I looked at some complex and some simple styles on web and then there was lots of making it up as I went along.
I can tell you it does take a bit of preparation and some time but it is such a fun thing to do.
(1) Cut and singe
I bought some chiffon in white and some in pale pink and cut lots of circles - approx 6 inches diameter. You don’t have to be too careful with exact shape of circles.
But patience is needed for next stage - carefully singeing all around each circle - just heating enough to seal but not burn - not so easy. If you do burn a little - just cut off that piece of black and singe again. I found the easiest way to do this is over a candle.
(2) Making the flowers.
I folded and gathered a circle - loosely sewing at the end - four of these together made the flower size I wanted.
(3) Stem
I used hobby/florist wires for the stems.
I bent the wire and sewed on the flower and then to soften the stem and give a little body I used padding - just wrapping thread around to hold. I finished off by wrapping with green florist tape. At tops I added some dyed silk petals - looks pretty and also helps secure the flower neatly.
(4)
For centers of flowers I picked nice white / pink fabric sewn around padding into little balls. The detail is made by embroidering knots with white cotton yarn and then lots of seed beads. ( I find it hard to make anything without adding seed beads !! )
(5) Wrap
I wrapped the bouquet with 1940’s white open work lace and at top added 1920’s thin lace. I printed the wedding date on cotton as a final touch.
The individual flowers can then be adjusted - fluffed up - tweeked until it looks done !!
There are so many amazing fabric bouquets to be seen on the web - I am in awe at the detail and beauty of them. There are many ways to make one - mine is just my idea of how to go about it.
It turned out a light bouquet to hold - just what I wanted to make - and I learnt a lot making it !!
