august tutorial, for Intrepid Thread.

A little while back I promised an August tutorial, to make flower brooches. This was for Julie, at Intrepid thread. She has published that in August, so now, it is time to put it here, so, if you have seen this before, you can just quietly go away, and if you haven't, well, you have now!

So, what are we going to make?

A while back I made some flower brooches for a friend to sell on a craft stall. They are extremely easy, and not too costly to make, but look quite fun. so what do you think?

These take about twenty minutes to make - that is both of them, and you can make them in all sorts of colours, and a lot of variations.

Ok, so let us have a recipe.

I used

Felt scraps
Brooch backs ( bought from a local sewing and craft shop, £1.99 for 12)
Bridal rose petal confetti- in this case, shades of blue, in different sizes, and with leaves as well, this is readily available at a  hobby suppliers, though I got mine at  a florist suppliers. There are a lot of different colour variations.

Diamante centres, again from a florists supplier, Again these are inexpensive, about £3.50, gave me half a dozen stems with about five diamante flowers on each.

A glue gun is also useful, as it is very secure,





 and there is another accessory I find indispensible.










I tend to cut the felt after I have done the glueing, as I feel I waste less that way, however, if you like to be very neat, you may like to cut squares of felt out first.

Snip a diamante flower off by the main stem, leaving enough wire on it to secure it through the felt, I then snip a tiny hole in the felt, to thread it through,

and poke the wire through the hole...

choose your petals, five or six can work well, (If you are using gold or silver they can stick together in layers, so check that you only have one petal at a time). A little time, arranging the petals so you have a mental map of where they are going, is not wasted.

Then a little dob of hot glue, right by where the wire goes through, and press your petals into place.
Once this has set, which is very quick, I snip the whole flower off, with it's felt backing.

The next thing is to organise the brooch back. you have a choice here. I usually just hot glue the back onto a piece of felt, and then glue the two pieces together, this gives a firm, secure back to your brooch.

Alternatively, you can sew the back on. When I do this I make a 'tongue' of felt, to cover the back,

 And I use the zipper foot of my machine to sew it firmly into place.

 You can then sew this back onto the flower back, easing the petals out of the way.

Done!

I have also used covered buttons as centres, and added little frills of tulle. These make a pretty addition to a home-made card,  or a neat piece of frivolity to a small gift.