Giving it another go!

If you remember this post you know about my love affair with fabric flowers like these, these and these! You also know that my first attempt at making them wasn't exactly picture perfect.  Since the last time a very dear friend bought me an awesome hot glue gun, so I was ready to get back on the horse and give it another go.

I had some strips of fabric left from last time so we (Lynsey and I) just started off with those.  I pulled up this tutorial and turned the glue gun on to get started.  Oh I also might mention that while we were getting all crafty our boys were at the shooting range trying out Nathan's new gun! Talk about opposite ends of the hobby spectrum.

Round Two:

First we started by just taking a little bit of the fabric in your fingers.  Then you twist the fabric and start twirling it around the first little piece. Kind of confusing... but we placed a dot of glue every now and then to hold it together.

Lynsey twisting the fabric

The hot glue really helped keep the twisted fabric together.

My finished product of rosette numero uno.  

With the added embellishment glued to the middle.

Felt glued to the back to hold it in place more.

I decided to make a barrette out of them!

Taaaa daaaa!

In the mean time, the boys returned home after 2+ hours at the shooting range! They decided to clean the new "family gun" at the table while we finished our craft project. :)

So... turns out Lynsey is like Super Woman when it comes to crafts! She finished all this while I finished my two for the barrette.  I especially liked her take on the little green leaf :)

And then Super Craft Woman Lynsey developed this seriously smart and super quick way of make the rosettes.  Take the fabric strip and fold it in half over your finger like this:

Then start twisting like this:

Once you've twisted take it off your finger and twirl it around the spot when you originally draped it over your finger resulting in this:

We still used the hot glue every now and then and this time I used a little ribbon I had lying around in the craft supplies.  This took literally about a minute or two!  Then I made more and decided to make it into a pin!

I was very happy with the outcome and it is now on my coat! :) Here are the rest of the flowers we made:

Lynsey's bracelet!

Finished products! :)

Needless to say I'm extremely happy with the outcome of this try!  The more you make, the easier it becomes. I can't wait to go shopping for more fabric and to make more! I think next time I'll find some "fancier" fabric and try to do some really pretty ones like these that I found here at etsy:

Happy Crafting!!

If at first you don't succeed...

If you are a follower of my "DIY/Crafty Ideas" board on Pinterest you already know I'm a bit obsessed with fabric flowers.  If you are a follower of my life (aka a friend) you know I don't sew.  Imagine my excitement when I found a tutorial here at lillyella that didn't require sewing! Jackpot.

She has a great tutorial on how to make the pretty little rosettes and I got super excited.  On my last trip to Burlington I made sure to stock up at Michael's and Joanne's on all the materials I needed! I finally sat down to give it a good ole college try on Sunday.  My track record with the "college" try hasn't been so great and I'm pretty certain I was doomed from the start.  Here are a few photos of the process:

The materials: 

Fabric, Craft Glue*, ribbons, scissors, card stock, iron, pin backs, felt.

*See my thoughts on why I failed below

First I cut the fabric into strips (for details please see the link to the tutorial above)

Than I ironed the fabric so it would stay folded like above.

Finished product of rosette number 1.

Finished product of the three that I made.

I tried gluing them to the ribbon because the glue didn't hold to the pin back.

Perhaps you are thinking that it doesn't look like a terrible failed attempt.  They look pretty good, but i'm almost certain that they will fall apart after any wear.  It was a decent first attempt, but definitely not the best.  I think part of my problem lied in the glue and the fabric.  If I had a hot glue gun it definitely would have helped, and I think that the fabric that they used in the tutorial was a bit different.  Either way, if at first you don't succeed, try again! 

I found another tutorial that requires very little sewing.  I'm also going to invest in a hot glue gun so I can use the pin backs and hair clips that I bought! I'm going to give this one from Everyday Chaos a shot next time.  I'll let you know how it turns out!