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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Layered Organza Flowers How-To

These look so much harder than they actually are. I like these so much, I'm going to whip up a bouquet made up solely of these flowers and see how it looks.

Step 1. Get some organza. I sucked it up and paid $3.50 for a half yard of this because I was dying to try these and it just couldn't wait, but I found a window sheer at Goodwill for a much better price that will work just find.



Step 2. Cut the flower out. Start by cutting a big circle, this will be the back of the flower. Then cut a circle a little bit smaller, this is the next layer. Keep going until you have enough to make up a flower. The smallest layer I made was a little bigger than a quarter, and the biggest layer I made was the size of a cereal bowl. I did find that when I made a particularly large big circle for the back layer, it was way too translucent so I did another circle the same size just to give it some substance.

Step 3. Once you have all of your layers cut out, arrange them from biggest to smallest. Thread your needle and knot one end of the thread. I did a simple cross stitch (it's a stitch that looks like an X) and went over it a couple times for durability sake.

Step 4. Burn baby burn! Ok, this is the fun part.



Hold the edges of each layer over a flame until they curl up. I totally caught one on fire like 5 times, but I just trimmed away the blackened edge and reburned it. How great is a DIY project when it doesn't matter if you catch it on fire?

Step 5. Prettify. I sewed some pearl beads in the center of one flower, some aqua beads in the center of another, and an old pearl button from my Meemaw's handed-down button stash in the middle of another.

And here's the end result:






If you haven't noticed, I only do these in my PJ's (which consist almost entirely of Cross Country t-shirts. Anyone have some affordable lingerie sites I should visit for something pretty to snooze in?).

I can't wait to see how a bouquet made out of these turns out!

Thoughts, tips, something I left out in the tutorial?

9 comments:

  1. No tips or things that you left out...I think that you covered it all! But a question...when you do your bouquet, are you going to do them all in one color or mix some other colors in as well?

    I don't know why I'm asking other than to be nosy!

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  2. Wow...they look great! I totally want to try these!

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  3. :) was waiting for this one! They look great! Post some pics of the bouquet when you have it. Now you have me thinking of where I can use some of these flowers...

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  5. Oh and sometimes these guys have some cute things on sale http://www.lasenza.com/store.cfm?&ckey=US&lang=eng&ct=US
    I always end up wearing tees and tanks tho too

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  6. Ohh, I love them! I've awarded you a little something on my blog if you're interested.

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  7. They turned out awesome!! You've got some great projects on here which is why I wanted to give you an award:
    http://kmattso2.blogspot.com/2009/10/kreativ-blogger-award.html
    Please go check it out and be sure to pass it on!!

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  8. These are adorable! I'm totally going to try this!

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  9. Question: How much does the organza curl up? Like, what was the size of the cereal box flower after you burned it? Thanks, I'm gonna try these now!

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Hearing from you all makes my day!