Friday photo inspiration

Bridemaids' flowers, originally uploaded by BabyDinosaur.

Friday photo inspiration

Wedding Bouquet, originally uploaded by audra little.

Friday photo inspiration

A twist on the classic..., originally uploaded by morgan_iscool.

It's starting to feel like spring in my neck of the woods - the tulips are finally poking through the soil!

In honor of the promise of new flowers, today's Friday Photo Inspiration is all flowers.

tutorial: embroidered flower brooches - part two

Ready to finish up your flower brooch? Here's the first set of instructions if you missed them :-)

Just a reminder, this is an original, copyright pattern that I've put a lot of time & energy into creating. Please don't copy the post - but feel free to send the link to people !

Lay the smaller flower centre on top of the bigger bottom one and tack together using running stitches:
I decided to use buttons as the centre of my flower brooch, but you could also use beads as well. Use a needle & thread with four strands of thread (or two strands of heavy-duty hand sewing thread) Begin randomly sewing buttons (or beads) onto the centre of the flower, building up layers as you go. I used several different styles of buttons, both clear & ivory. If you look closely you can even see a little cupid button!

Sew a pin back (or hair clip) onto the back of the brooch and enjoy!

tutorial: embroidered flower brooches - part one

As promised, here's part one of the tutorial to create an embroidered flower brooch. I asked you last time to have these supplies - ready to go?

The first step is to draw a flower shape onto a piece of plain paper. I went with an uneven flower - nothing fancy:
Trace the flower onto your netting and fold it over so you have two layers of netting. Don't cut the flower out yet! Using a zig-zag stitch, stitch all the way around the flower, just slightly to the inside of the pen line.

Okay, now you can cut the flower out!

Now we need to stabilize the edges:
Sew a length of yarn or cord around the edge of the flower, using a zig-zag stitch. I'm using a mohair yarn with little picots on the edges:
I sewed into the centre of the flower, just to give it a little definition. Here's how it looks out from underneath the sewing machine:
I then stitched another cord across each petal, to mimic the central "ribs" that some flowers have. This also stabilizes the brooch as well. Again, just use a zig-zag stitch to stitch the cord down. I'm using a soft, twisted satin cord:
I wanted to add a little bit more glitz to the brooch, so I went over the edges with a metallic machine embroidery thread, again - just zig-zag. I used a silver thread over the central ribs of the flower.

You've got the first layer of the brooch done!
Now repeat the same steps over again, just with a slightly smaller flower - that's the inside of the brooch. I'll show you how to connect everything - but that's for tomorrow :-)

short & sweet Saturday links

Here's a great link for step-by-step instructions on making your own wedding bouquet.