Giant fabric flower bouquet, easy peasy - TUTE

Ok, so here is another of my wedding crafts. Since flowers are more commonly a home item I put the thread here, I hope that's ok.

The original link with the other tutes is here.




My bouquet


bridesmaid's bouquet

Materials:
fabric of choice - i used multicoloured gauzy fabric that need ALOT of starch (but it worked) and purple satin dress lining
bamboo skewers - i painted some and all were cut in half
hot glue and gun
MATCHING thread for gathering
You really need another set of hands for this project!


I used the whole width of the fabric to make it a bit easier. The satin was great cause it tears in a straight line but the coloured was a pain. The single layer satin fabric is 12 cm wide and the multicoloured fabric is 24 cm wide.



Iron all the pieces and starch if you want. Firmly press any doubled pieces in half and give them a nice clean crease


I used a sewing machine to stitch the longest straight stitch I could, you can do this by hand but it will take a while. Gather the fabric to about half the original length. DO NOT gather evenly, leave some areas with no gathering and really bunch up others for a unique look. Leave each end ungathered for about 10 cm.


Pick an end and fold the corner down to create a point


Glue the point to the stake about 6 cm from the end


Have someone hold the stake and twirl it as you glue. Wrap the fabric around and around, gluing as you go. Keep it taut. If you want your flowers to have a slightly indented centre, spiral the fabric up slightly as you glue. You only want the end to be about a centimetre higher than the start of the fabric on the stake (does that make ANY sense??) Mine were glued evenly, each time the fabric wrapped around the stake it was directly on top of the last glue line so the ends were aligned.


When you get towards the end fold the fabric again to make a point and continue gluing. Not necessary but gives a neat tucked-in finish.

I just trimmed the fabric on the bottome but you could cover the bases if you like. I didn't have anything suitable on hand and saved my sanity by not pursuing the matter. You may like to trim the stakes further, I did for the bouquet but for a vase long stems are nicer.


And here are the matching boutoinerres for the men, made at half the width and about a quarter of the length of fabric.

These flowers are inspired by an Etsy artist, but the process is entirely my own (and took a while to get right too!). These were made just for me and not for resale. Please do not use my tutorial without my permission or for profit. You know, crafty karma and all that 

Comments and questions welcome please let me know if I missed anything or it doesn't make sense. I plan to make heaps in fabulous colours, don't forget to play around with the size of the fabric too. Giant shiny orange ones are in my head



This is such amarvelous idea i want to share with as many people i can.....

URL: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=271353.0