DIY Flower rosettes

Hello!

I’m really enjoying hearing all the new voices on Adore this week, meeting readers and getting to know other creative peeps! Today I have another for you… our loveliest new sponsor, Emily Carlill.

Emily married Pete last June, they had a gorgeous handcrafted wedding that kick started Emily’s love of sewing and making things. So she set up a blog, started posting and started receiving orders for crafts and wedding bunting! Fast forward a few months and she’s now about to launch a new venture of opening up an online fabric shop!!

I’ll keep you updated on the launch but for now Emily has kindly offered to share a DIY tutorial with us… enjoy!

“My friend Sarah got married a few years ago. As part of team bridesmaid, we were responsible, of course, for organising the hen do. Being titled ‘creative director’ I was given the task of coming up with the ideas for all the hen-do memorabilia. Being a class lady, we thought Sarah deserved something a bit different to the usual inflatable willy or pink feather bowers, so I decided to make flower rosette pins for all the hens, using the colour theme of Sarah’s wedding: purple and silver.

Sarah and all the hens loved them, they were cool, made nice accessories to go with the ladies pretty dresses, but still distinguished us as a hen do. Everyone got to take them home to as a little keep-sake.

Here is my little tutorial…

You need:

Fabric for petals (flowery)
Fabric for centre of flower (pink spots)
Ribbon if using
Felt (for backing)
Safety pin
Matching thread
Chalk, scissors, needle and iron.

Step 1. Cutting the petals

1. Make a semi-circle template for the petals. You can make these to whatever size you like. (Mine are approximately 15cm in diameter).

The best way to do this is to draw a circle onto a piece of pattern paper (I use parchment paper, or just regular paper will do).

To draw the circle, you can use either a protractor or just draw around any circular item you have lying around i.e. plant pot, large mug, tin can, jar lid. I used the lid off a tube that I use to store all my buttons!

2. Cut the circle out of the paper, fold in half and cut again to get your semi-circle.

3. Using the template, cut out six semi-circles from the fabric you are using for our petals (here, I am using the flowery fabric).

Step 2. Making the petals

1. Sew along one of the straight sides, approx 0.5cm seam allowance. Turn right side out. Press

2. By hand, using a wide (running) stitch, sew along the curved edge of the petal, gathering as you go.

3. When you get to the end, join the next petal and sew along it’s curved edge.

4. Continue joining petals until all six are attached together. Sew petal 1 and petal 6 together using a few stitches or tie the loose ends to the threads together to get a circle of petals.

Step 3. Making the centre of flower.

1. To make the centre of the flower, you need another circle of fabric (in your chosen colour – here, mine is the pink spotty fabric), slightly small to that of the petals.

Again, you can use anything to make the circle (I’m using a candle in a tin! It’s diameter is 6cm.)

2. By hand, using a running stitch, sew around the circle approx 0.5cm from the edge.

3. Again, using the same method as above, gather the circle together and stuff with a small bit of stuffing (or you could use cotton wool or just left over small scraps of fabric). Tie this in place using the loose ends of the thread.

Step 4. Attach the flower middle to the petals.

1. Hand-sew the flower middle to the petals using a small stitch close the edge. Make sure the raw edges of both the flower middle and petals are tucked in.

Step 5. Attach the backing felt.

1. Make a circle from the felt, just big enough to cover the stuffing a raw edges of the petal.

2. If you are using the ribbons, it is at this stage that you need to place two short lengths to the back of the flower, to hold in place. The lengths of my pieces of ribbon is 18cm.

3. Place the circle of felt over the ribbons and pin to hold in place.

4. Hand-sew, using a slip stitch, the felt to the back of the ribbon, making sure just to catch the back layer of fabric, not going right through to the front layer so that the stitches don’t show on the front of the flower.

When you get round to the ribbons continue as normal making sure to sew through the ribbon as well as catching the back fabric.

5. Attach your safety pin to the back of the flower and they are now ready to pin to your hens!

As mentioned the ones I used for Sarah’s hen do where made using fabrics that matched the colour theme of her wedding. I also got some ribbon off the internet with ‘Sarah’s Hens’ printed on to make them a bit more personal.