Just to clarify, this isn't a craft blog. I'm not a crafty person. Knitting is about as far into the craft realm as I tend to go. But I did take a class on how to make felt flowers a couple of years ago. The patterns that I have for felt flowers have a lot of dimension and would be too difficult to attach to an envelope for my Elevated Envelope project. So I decided to create a pattern of my own. I wanted something simple that would reflect my little floral illustration, and that could be "flattened" so to speak in order to endure the rigors of the mail sorting process.
Clearly it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out it's just a bunch of circles stacked on top of each other. But I decided to share the pattern I made for myself to make it easy for anyone who wants to add these to their summer craft repertoire. With some adult supervision it's an easy kid-friendly project.
I started with the felt. I chose to use 100% wool felt, but there are different kinds with different price points. Alison from The Allison Show does a phenomenal job of explaining this in her Craft School series. If you want to upcycle an old sweater like I did check out this great tutorial. (Remember the time your favorite cashmere sweater accidentally made it's way into the washing machine. Then you can skip the tutorial. Congratulations! You know how to make felt !) You will need at least two colors, one for the petals and one for the leaves and the small center. But if you have lots of different colors at your disposal feel free to mix things up a bit.
Even though I sewed my flower together, this can easily be done with a hot glue gun or any craft glue that is compatible with fabric.
You can use the pattern to cut your felt in one of two ways. You can either cut out each shape in the pattern, pin them onto your felt, and then trace each shape onto the felt using a washable sewing marker. Or you can use a piece of freezer paper ( my method of choice). Trace the pattern on to freezer paper. Cut out each shape. Place the waxy side of the paper down on your felt and iron them on with a hot dry iron. The freezer paper will stick to the felt while you cut so no pinning or marking is required. And don't panic if your circles come out less than perfect ... I think the little imperfections add charm.
Arrange the two leaves however you like. I glued mine in the very center underneath the flower to cover the stitches.
To attach the flower to the envelopes I used alligator clips from my local beauty supply shop. Alligator clips are great because they are very inexpensive can be used for so many different things other than hair. Wouldn't these be fun clipped to a big tote bag? Or used to embellish a Mother's Day gift?
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR PATTERN
looks great! xo
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