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Friday, March 18, 2011

Flower Clippy Hair Bow...

I love these flowers as a bow for the girls’ hair or as a clip on one of my jackets. I would give a shout out to my sister in law in Colorado for showing me how to make these. But I can't. Cause this blog is a secret, so she doesn't know anything about it. Just the same, thanks to S for giving me the DL on these cute clippies.


To start, you need to choose your fabric. For this flower I used three different coordinating fabrics, but I’ve made these with only one fabric or pattern and they’re still cute. You will need to cut out six circles from your fabric.


I used a small plastic Ikea bowl as my circle template and my circles were about 3 ½ inches in circumference. The bigger the bowl, the bigger your flower will turn out.

Take one of your circles, fold it in half and iron it.

Holy schnikes, my ironing board looks dirty. Okay, well… ignore that. Fold it in half again and iron it so it looks like a little pizza slice; these will be the petals of the flower.


Do that to all six of your circles. Note to self: quit drinking (and spilling) coffee on ironing board.


Cut about 8 inches of thread and pull a knot in one end. Starting at the bottom (the area of fabric that you cut), weave a stitch along the edge.



Grab the next petal and repeat with the same piece of thread until all the petals are connected. Gently pull the thread, bunching up the bottom of the petals.

CAUTION: Pulling too hard may break your thread… uh… yeah. But that’s never happened to me… I wouldn’t try using the same thread and breaking it over and over, because I learn from my mistakes the first time. Or the seventh. Whatever. I now use a polyester cotton blend thread when making my bows because it’s much sturdier and I’m less likely to get frustrated and throw the thread across the room. Okay, I’ve never really thrown the thread. Talked threateningly and asked questions of it… ‘What is your problem, thread?!?’ ‘ARGH!!! Why won’t you just do what I want?’ Yes. That I have done. Moving on…

Once all the petals are scrunched on the thread, you need to bring the two end petals together and sew them. This will create a rounded flower shape with a little hole in the center. I fill this hole with scraps of fabric or felt; that will help the flower keep its shape.



Now you get to choose something to cover the center of the flower. I chose a button, but you could use a yo yo or anything sized right. Get creative! Woo Hoo! My flower is finished. I used this one to embellish an apron I made for the Lovely L’s 11th birthday. Hmmm… I need to think about cleaning up before taking these pictures. Or at least shoving things out of the way. Unless you’re really interested in what kind of vacuum I use. I bought it ‘cause it’s purple. You think I’m lying…


4 comments:

  1. I love this! Great tutorial--I just bought similar fabrics for my 7 year olds room! I love the apron and chef hat, I would love to see a tutorial on those!

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  2. Thanks Carli! I'm working on the tutorial for the apron. I'll have it out this month : )

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  3. Oh Kristin....You always crack me up! I too converse with inanimate objects....and if I never make one single bow of my own...I still LOVE reading your blogs! And NO...I know you aren't lying about your why you bought your vacuum. :) CPace

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  4. Found this post on Pinterest and love it! Love your style! Have to poke around your blog some more!! And I may or may not have ever actually thrown thread. Just sayin.


    Blessings,
    Babychaser
    www.babychaser.com

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