Sew Old Sew New: Beaded Fringe Flower ~TUT~

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Beaded Fringe Flower ~TUT~

This flower is so elegant and beautiful.
It has a rough around the edges elegance, which makes it so unique.
This project is for the fiber artist who has a nice little stash of beads and rhinestones, sewing notions and fabrics on hand.
This flower requires just a bit of problem solving, but hopefully, I've worked out most of the frustrations for you.
Lets Begin!

Materials Include: Scissors, pinking sheers (optional), needle, coordinating threads, glass beads (assortment), home dec fringe", scraps of fabric, (I used linen, netting and organza), bits of yarn. You will also need little bits of felt or felted wool in a contrasting and/or coordinating fabric. You may also want to add some disassembled silk flower petals.

Create the fringe layer
1. Cut a length of fringe 3-4 inches long. 2. Begin by gathering the inner part of the fringe into a loop and sewing the ends together. 3. Take a scissors and chop at the outer edge of the fringe. This will make it a bit smaller and give the edge an irregular quality.

1. Cut various size circles of your fabric. I cut my circles 2 1/2 inches to 4 inches.
2. I used a pinking shears on the outer edges. Then I snipped petals into each circle and added a fringed edge to those petals.
3. I like to coordinate different fabrics by tea staining or by dipping them into a dish of pale, acrylic stained water. To manipulate fabric to give it qualities that coordinate with other materials in my project. (Shown in step 3 & 4). Dip linen into an acrylic stain. Then squish it, roll it, wrinkle it, flatten it and allow it to dry. I love how this abuse gives fabric a new life. (A tutorial on that process is coming soon)
Tip; I also took a brush loaded with the stain, added a bit of fabric stiffener and lightly brushed that solution onto the fringe trim. It gives it body and just a little stiffness. I didn't want the fringe to flop over when it was being worn. (not shown)

Next, I created the yarn accents. 1. Gather coordinating yarns. 2. Cut lengths of yarn at about 4" and 3. join them at the center.

Then, create the beaded center. Use one layer for flower shown at the top of this tutorial or add a layer of embroidery (pictured below).

1. Cut one or two circles of felt or felted wool. I use them in combination. Cut a circle the size of your desired center size. Cut only one circle and add 1/8 inch if you do not want to add embroidery. 2. Begin sewing the beads onto the felt circle. Place them very close together. You may need to purchase a beading needle for this step. Use the larger sized beads toward the middle and use small beads to fill in bare areas. I like to pour a nice selection into a small lid so I can see how they relate to each other. Be creative.
3. You may find that the felt no longer lays flat. Use that to your advantage! I gather the edges and begin turning them under using a coordinating thread. I then stuff the center with a little polyester fiberfill.

Join all of your layers together.
Center your layers together and stitch through all layers to join. Add a layer of netting as one of the last layers and add a small linen layer to finish the back of the pin. Originally, I planned on using a few layers of silk flower petals but found that they added too much bulk to my finished flower. Experiment with the layers. The transparency of the organza allows the yarn layers to show through in a soft subtle way. I also may trim the fringe further if I find it is too big or too heavy.
Use plenty of stitches and be sure to tack down the outside edges of your beaded center.

Add a pin back and you are finished!
I love these domed pin backs. They have a little tab that bends over into the bottom layer so I am sure it will stay put. I use hot glue as well so the pin back can be handled without falling off. The last layer of netting and linen is the difference between making a flower and creating a professional product. Things should look clean and polished on the front and back.
Finished!