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How to… make Organza flowers

13 May 2011 38 Comments

Welcome back to the How To section. Today we are looking at how to make Organza Flowers… As you know I often have Guest Posters share their wonderful creative and crafty ideas. This is a fabulous way to keep me on my toes and help bring new and varied crafts. I have often learnt a thing or two myself! Liz from Me and My Shadow is guest posting for us. I “met” Liz on Twitter (@missielizzieb ) she is kind, funny and above all crafty! Like me, she has a toddler that she regularly crafts with, and like me, she also loves adult craft ideas. She also has a weekly “Magpie Monday” Link up party – which a great inspiration for trawling car boot sales, charity shops or bargain basement departments. Go visit and have a good look around!

In the meantime, I want to thank Liz for all her support and loveliness over the last few month, it is fabulous to have you as a real buddy! Hooray for the internet!

So.. to her “How to make Organza Flowers”:

On one of my recent forays in our local Poundland shop, I spotted packs of beautiful coloured organza strips. I loaded up my basket with packs of purples, blues, yellows, greens and reds.

They have now been sitting in the craft cupboard for a few weeks while I pondered what to do with them. After a trawl through google, I stumbled across a lovely blog tutorial showing how to make fabric flowers.

Simply Vintage Girl gives a very professional tutorial which is easy to follow, however, one of the links made my computer go a bit loopy with virus alerts. Readers of my blog are not used to such professional ‘how-to’s', so in my own inimitably, wobbly style, I shall take you through the steps here, and give you some tips I have picked up already in my very early career of fabric flower production.

I do love this craft already. It is so simple, requires no real precision, artistic skill, appeals to my pyromaniac tendencies, is wonderfully relaxing, gives very pleasing results and is highly addictive! Perfect.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Synthetic silky fabric
Card for template making
Needle and thread
Buttons or beads
A candle or tea light
Scissors

To begin you’ll need to make your circle templates. For possibly the first time ever since leaving school, I have found a use for my compass – my old maths teacher would be so proud! If you are using the fabric strips from Poundland, I’ve found you can get 6 circles of decreasing diameter, with the largest being approx 6.5cm and the smallest 4cm. I wouldn’t recommend going much smaller than this, as it makes the later stages quite difficult (and dangerous!). Experiment with different sizes and amounts of circles – the more circles you use, the ‘fuller’ the flower. As a guide, this finished flower will be about 1cm smaller than your largest disc.

Draw around your templates directly onto the fabric and cut out. You don’t need to worry too much about pen lines (biro pen works well) as these shouldn’t show. Also, precise cutting is not too important as you are not creating perfectly uniform petals.

Once you have all your discs cut, snip your ‘petals’ by cutting into the circle to about halfway. It’s up to you how many snips you make, but try to space them evenly around the circle – 5 or 6 works well.

Next comes the fun part!! Hold your fabric between thumb and forefinger about 3 or 4 inches above a candle flame. Rotate the circle around, and you’ll see the petals start to curl up under the heat. BE VERY CAREFUL!! Clearly, this is not a craft for kids! It is very easy to catch the fabric alight, so make sure you keep turning. If you do catch alight – blow it out! I can assure you trying to put it out with your fingers is not a good idea as you’ll end up with molten fabric stuck to you (doh!). Don’t worry if some curl inwards and some outwards, as you can turn them back after it’s cooled. If a petal does accidentally catch light, it is usually salvageable by snipping the burnt edge off with scissors!

Continue until you have curled the edges of all your discs.

Then assemble your flower in your hand, starting with the largest and layering.

When you’re happy with the arrangement, take a needle and thread and put a couple of stitches in the centre to secure. Again, this doesn’t have to be too neat as you’ll cover it with a button.

Finally, stitch on a button or bead to make the centre. This is a great way for me to use some of my vintage buttons, and I’m going to have a lovely time matching buttons to fabric!

Et voila!

I’m totally hooked on these now. But that’s fine as I have thought of a million and one ways to use them. You can stitch them to hair slides and bobbles, sew onto bags, make brooches, stick to magnets and pegs for noticeboards….

Aren’t these Organza Flowers simply lovely? And they seem quite easy to make.. go on.. have a go!

Have you decided yet on what gift to give mother, perhaps flowers for mother’s day.

This is a sponsored post

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38 Comments »

Chaoskay said:

These flowers are absolutely gorgeous! I reckon I’d burn my fingers, but I might just have a go anyway! It’s so pretty the way the burning process shades the edges too. Lovely blog!

# 13 May 2011 at 11:07 am

@mummiafelice said:

I loved this post! 2 on my fav peeps on one blog! how cool

# 13 May 2011 at 11:53 am

Red Ted Art (author) said:

Chaoskay – hehehe know what you mean re burning fingers… but I will also have a go! Especially since Liz sent me some of the organza! Yay!

# 13 May 2011 at 11:58 am

Red Ted Art (author) said:

@mummiafelice *BEAM*

# 13 May 2011 at 11:59 am

RINA KUVENT said:

LOVELY
THANKS FOR SHARING

# 13 May 2011 at 3:17 pm

Red Ted Art (author) said:

Pleasure! Liz is wonderful!

# 13 May 2011 at 3:24 pm

Rashmie @MommyLabs said:

These are gorgeous! The burning part sounds fun! I’ll have to try when my kid is not around…. !

# 13 May 2011 at 4:35 pm

Amy said:

That is so neat.. I have my Round Robin up now if you want to join in with all of the blogger mess up..

Have a great weekend..

# 13 May 2011 at 8:59 pm

Red Ted Art (author) said:

Amy – Blogger really was a mess today?!! Heading your way now!

Rashmie – have fun!

# 13 May 2011 at 9:11 pm

Amy said:

THanks for doing this for me.. With the blogger mess it sure has made me smile. It has been one of those days..

# 13 May 2011 at 9:13 pm

Red Ted Art (author) said:

Oh yes, I think it has been very stressful for a lot of people today!

# 14 May 2011 at 6:38 am

JDaniel4's Mom said:

These would be great pinned to a summer sweater.

# 15 May 2011 at 1:41 am

Nancy said:

I make these “melty” flowers using a stick of unscented incense – no flame and no fire – just play with the distance required to melt the edges of the petals.

Use buttons, pearls or whatever you have on hand for the centers – I’ve even used gears from broken watches.

Thanks

# 15 May 2011 at 6:46 am

Red Ted Art (author) said:

Oooh Nancy! Thank you for the top tips! That sounds fabulous!!!!

# 15 May 2011 at 6:47 am

Red Ted Art (author) said:

- JDaniel4s Mom – ooh yes, would look lovely as a brooch!

# 15 May 2011 at 6:50 am

elaine simmons said:

I made these from a blog but did not snip into the circle. That would be a good addition. However, what I did do is use a tweezers to hold the flower to the flame. No burned fingers that way! I made some and put on a t-shirt and made some pins as well.

# 15 May 2011 at 1:38 pm

Red Ted Art (author) said:

Oooh great tip to use the tweezers

# 15 May 2011 at 1:41 pm

Liz Burton said:

Wow! Loving all the lovely comments, and particularly the helpful ones about using incense sticks and tweezers. That sure would have saved a few burnt finger nails (is there a smell on earth more disgusting than burnt nails?). Why didn’t I think of that?!

# 15 May 2011 at 8:15 pm

Mari said:

Beautiful flowers – another idea to file away for a rainy day. Thank you ladies

# 15 May 2011 at 8:27 pm

Red Ted Art (author) said:

Liz – thank you for a marvellous post! And yes, aren’t the top tips, tip top!?!?

Mari –

# 16 May 2011 at 1:20 pm

Jennifer said:

simple, but so pretty!

# 16 May 2011 at 3:19 pm

alterations, handmade clothing said:

I love those flowers. They can be adorned on anything from clothes to headbands etc…

# 16 May 2011 at 3:47 pm

Red Ted Art (author) said:

Headbands would be lovely, no?

# 16 May 2011 at 3:56 pm

Sarah, Maisonn Cupcake said:

These are so pretty! Love them!

# 16 May 2011 at 7:23 pm

Little Wonders' Days said:

This looks wonderful! I love the way they look.
Congrats on being in the top 10 of Raising Playuful Tots.

# 16 May 2011 at 9:01 pm

Madigan at madiganmade said:

These are so pretty! They look like fun to make. The yellow is perfect for spring!

# 16 May 2011 at 10:38 pm

Rashi said:

Fantastic idea!!! I am really excited to make this flower too. Thanks for sharing this wonderful idea.

# 17 May 2011 at 1:15 am

angie said:

love it flowers that do not need watering and look great

# 17 May 2011 at 2:18 am

Marzena said:

beautiful flowers
fantastic idea

# 17 May 2011 at 12:30 pm

Red Ted Art (author) said:

Thanks for your lovely comments and Little Wonders Days – yes, I am very excited/ chuffed on my Raising Playful Tots ranking. How cool!?

# 17 May 2011 at 8:35 pm

Amy said:

hope you are enjoying your week so far..

# 18 May 2011 at 1:09 am

Kimberlee said:

Very neat! I didn’t know that they sold organza like that. I am going to have to look for it the next time I am in town.
~Kimberlee
{Accuquilt Giveaway}

# 18 May 2011 at 2:00 pm

Fab Five at Five on Friday ~ 5.20.2011 said:

[...] How to Make Organza Flower at Red Ted Art Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With: Fab 5 at 5 [...]

# 20 May 2011 at 10:13 pm

Theresa Froehlich said:

What a wonderful blog! Have always admired creative, crafty (or craftsy?) women. Love these organza flowers! BTW I hopped over from BlogFrog Hip Homeschooling.

Coach Theresa

# 25 May 2011 at 10:09 pm

Red Ted Art (author) said:

Oh you are lovely! Thank you for such a kind comment!

# 26 May 2011 at 11:44 am