This Lil' Birdie is Crafty: Pretty Flowers Tutorial

I have a confession :  I love flowers.  It's a problem.  Thing is, though, I don't particularly like real flowers.  Except these...

These are alstroemerias.  They are my favorite flowers.  But they die.  And I don't like that.


So I decided to dedicate my love of flowers to things I can wear.  I might be a *tad* too old to wear this...

But I will never ever ever be too old for these...

Look how sweet and romantic and pretty!  I am currently obsessing over all things flower pin related.  But let's face it, I'm boutique on a budget around here, and I can't justify $10+ per flower, and I know me.  I would never be content with just one color or style.

So me being the crafty little birdie I am, I decided to make a few different styles and colors myself!  And I decided to share my how-to with you!

What you'll need:
- Lightweight fabric (I used a pretty polyester lining fabric)
- Hot glue, well at least, I used hot glue.  You can use some other sort of glue, but then where's the fun in the searing pain when you accidentally glue your fingers together?!
- a lighter (trust me on this one!)
- a pen or marker (I used a fancy disappearing ink pen, if not you've got to be a lot more careful about how you cut your fabric... you'll see)
- small round piece of felt for the back of the flower
- some sort of pin or clippie for the back of the flower (I used these...)
- decorative beads or even an old button!

So here's what you do...

Start by tracing four different size circles onto your fabric (I used measuring cups - 1/2 cup, 1/3 cup, & 1/4 cup & free-handed the smallest one).  I was making three different flowers, so that's why I have about a billion circles here.  You'll only need 4 circles in different sizes.

See the lines on the outside of my circles?  That's my disappearing ink pen.  So if you don't use one or if you use a marker, you'll have to carefully cut on the inside of the lines so they won't show.  I'm a lazy lazy birdie, so I use disappearing ink so I don't have to be careful.

Now to get your edges all curly and pretty like mine, you'll use the lighter to slightly singe the edges of the fabric circles.  Do this carefully; watch your nail polish; and your hair.

Next, dab a little hot glue on each petal and stack them together to form your flower.  The pretty pink pearlies are my "pretty" for the middle!

Because this was never going anywhere near little lovebug babies, I just hot glued the pearls into the middle of the flower.  If I were actually going to put this on a baby (which is absolutely presh presh!), I would sew the little pearlies on with some serious thread and make sure they weren't goin' anywhere!  But since this one is for grown-up me, glue it is.

Now, for the attachments...

Glue your felt circle to the back side of the flower.  And then...

Glue your pin to the TOP of the felt circle.  This is very important to always glue it to the top.  If you don't, the flower will "droop" when you wear it.   On this one, I also added a little alligator clippie just in case I decided I wasn't really too old for this...

Well, okay, I wouldn't take it that far.  But how cute are these little flowers?! Make them as big or as small as you want to.  My next project will be making them into paci clips!