Having realised that I have a billion or so projects bookmarked in my Pinterest and Craftsters folders, I have decided that every Monday I will upload a project I have made inspired by something that caught my eye.
This week's one has been about for a long time but it ended up as a crunch project that exploded as Fay needed something girlie for a birthday party.
so today's project is: Organza Flower Clips!
Supplies - you need some Organza or Voile, a candle and a scissors - along with some hair clips and some sew or hot glue gun and soem odd bits of felt (for the backing).
you can buy packes of assorted organza in bazzara for a few pounds - these normally have a high plastic contents and I have found that they tend to burn very quickly and they got brown/grey rather than black or slightly melted. you can normally buy a 1/4 yard of organza in a fabric shop for a few pounds and that amount would be enough to do at least 4 if not 6 flowers.
You need to cut circles from the fabric in a varity of sizes - i would not go really any smaller than 1 1/2" across as you'll end up with burmt fingers and it over heating to quickly. I often do way more than is needed - using the rule of thumb of 1 crap circle per flower.
When you have the circles cut out, then you need to get your candle sorted out - I do this part near my sink so any bit thst catch on fire just get thrown in there - other people use a bowl of water near them on a table. The Organza will melt and is flammable and so it will stick to things - including your fingers and may continue to burn unless doussed in water.
you want a small to medium flame in a controlled environment - inside a glass or a holder so that the flame does not move about too much. I leave about an inche or two from the flame to the area i want to move the fabric through. This part of the project is a fast moving one so its best to have everything to hand.
you are not putting the fabric into the actual flame, you are moving the fabric through the heated air around the flame - that will be enought to melt the edges and make it curl up.
I hold the circles betweenmy hands and rotate it quickly but steadyily through the hot air so the edges melt - this will take a little bit of practice so hang on to your scraps to practice.
You should end up with a bunch of circles like this:
You then need to assemble the flowers to suit yourself, I stitched throught the middle and then added buttons and corsage jewels to the middle.
I then cut out a little bit of felt and hot glued it and the hair clip to the reverse of the flower. you could sew it to it but hotglue is easier. The felt has the added advantage of making the flower "grippier" in the hair so less likely to slide out.
You are only limited by your imagaination and supply of hairclips :)
and my rainbow flower for pride week. I made some extra ones with the felt I had too.
enjoy :)
Wow! These are so pretty! I love the bright multicoloured flower in the bottom photo!
Posted by: Lee-Anne | Monday, February 18, 2013 at 18:59