Our first tutorial! DIY Circle Flowers

Welcome to Poptart and Bubbie's very first tutorial!! We thought we would start off with something simple and sweet ... something easy to follow along with, and something for US to ease into, as we've never done this before! We are so excited to share this with you =) Poptart provided the "making of" and Bubbie provided the photography!

DIY Circle Flower (that's what Poptart calls them, because it's a simple name =))

Firstly, here is what you will need in order to complete this super cute flower:

-scissors
-thread
-needle
-candle and lighter
-beads of any colour (or charms, or buttons .. whatever you desire!)
-as many different fabrics as you want to use - But, make sure they are a synthetic fibre, as a pure cotton will just burn and/or catch on fire. Also, I've found that lighter synthetic fibres singe a LOT faster so you will have to be quick or you might not end up with a good circle. You pretty much just have to play around with various kinds of fabric and see which singes the best.
-paper to trace circles (optional)
-circles to trace (optional)
-hair clip or pin (if you want to make hair accessories) - but you can also use brooch pins or make magnets or embellishments … it’s really up to you =)



Next:

Cut your fabric choices into various circle sizes. You can use a stencil or free hand it. I prefer to free hand as the uneven-ness can add more character to the flowers.

Once you have cut all your circles, in all the different sizes, play around with the layout of your flower, just to see if all the sizes fit well together. You can always cut some smaller!!





Now it's time to singe the edges of your circles!!

For this step, PLEASE make sure you're in a well ventilated area. Some synthetic fibres can make you light-headed, and some fabric smell REALLY bad when they are burning! (Go figure, right!?). If I'm working with a really stinky fabric, I do this step on my stove with the range fan on high. Also make sure you have a container of "safety water" near-by, just in case your fabric catches fire (or your kitten gets thristy!!). Some fabrics just want to catch fire and they won't even burn first so PLEASE BE CAREFUL!

Place your circle close to the heat of the flame, NOT close to the flame itself. Use your hand to find a "hot spot" and then place the circle in that area. You might have to play around with the fabric, some are harder to singe then others.





When the edges of your circle start to curl, turn it. Keep turning until the entire circle is curled up. When you're finished with all the pieces, your flower should look like this:



Now for the sewing part!! We are so close to the finished product!!

I'm going to share a confession with you all ... I'm not the best sewer in the world. I'm actually quite sloppy. One day I will perfect the fine art of sewing, but for now, well, I just make it up as I go ;) SO, here's what I did to sew this flower together, beads included.

First I chose a bobby pin to attach to my flower. I sewed the bobby pin right onto the bottom circle using the same colour thread as the fabric. Usually I will sew a small piece of felt onto the back and slip the clip through ... that way it's interchangeable. But I thought I would try something new! It worked pretty well. I ended up having to sew a second stitch with the white thread.. but that's coming up =)





For this step, I placed all my circles together and sewed a few stitches to secure them all, with the white thread.





Now we are ready to sew on the beads!

I start with my needle at the back of (or 'under') the flower. Once I bring it through the top I slide a bead on, pretty basic. Just remember to hide your stitches under the beads. By that I mean, once your bead is at the end of the thread, stick your needle through the flower so it is directly under the bead you're sewing on, pull it through nice and tight ... this will help keep the bead tight but also less thread will show at the ends of the bead. I like to sew two stitches through each bead, and sometimes I get lazy and just sew one stitch through as many as possible!! Always keep your stitches as close to the middle as possible.





At this point I realized that the bobby pin was a little flimsy, so I sewed a few extra stitches to the top of the pin just to secure it.



When the beads are sewn and your clip is secure, your flower should look like this:



(A note: In the first photo there are some other fabric circles that I had planned to use but once I got my flower together I decided it looked better without them)

There are a lot of variations to this flower. If you wanted to just make a quickie one, grab your glue gun and adhere each circle and the beads together with hot glue. And I suppose you could use regular glue as well ... if you don't have a glue gun. I love this flower because it's so versatile! You can make really big ones and add feathers or other embellishments. You can sew them onto articles of clothing. You can make them into pretty packaging embellishments. SO MANY IDEAS!!! So, now, go forth and create your pretty circle flower and share it with us!! We want to see your creations!!

Thanks so much for stopping by and viewing our first ever tutorial!!

Next Sunday: Our pretty circle flower shines in front of the camera, ready for it's close up! Stay tuned ;)