<Living Crafts Blog

Perfect for Spring!

We can feel that Spring buzz in the air….the time for fresh colours and flowers and pretty things! While most of us may still be yearning for the return of our flowers in the garden, this scarf can brighten the transition from Winter to Spring!

A great project and tutorial by Amy  at Watch Me Daddy

End of summer and beginning of autumn is marked by the fully grown sunflowers, bending their heads for the birds, and inviting them for a feast.  Enjoy!

Materials:
Wool felt sheets

Embroidery thread (matching color)

Roving (I used 2 shades of brown)

Sunflower pattern

Scissors

Embroidery needle

Needle-felting needle (fine gauge)

Pencil

Instructions:

Cut out pattern pieces as directed.  It may give a more realistic look to cut the front and back out of slightly different shades of felt.

You can mark the dot to match the pieces or simply arrange them in a way that is pleasing to you.  Take a few stitches around the center to hold the front and back petals in place.  These don’t have to be anything fancy or particularly even, as we are going to cover them up shortly.

Place the sunflower on a felting brush or a piece of foam.  It is fine if the petals hang over a bit, as we are only going to needle-felt in the center of the flower.

Pull off a bit of dark brown roving and loosely roll into a ball.  It should be a little bigger than the center of the sunflower. Place roving on center of sunflower and poke with a fine needle-felting needle, felting the wool in place.

The roving will show through a bit on the back.

Take a small amount of lighter brown roving as shown.  Shape into a ring as you needle-felt it on to the middle of the sunflower, leaving a round of the dark felt showing in the middle.

If you feel the center should be bigger, simply add more dark wool around the edge.  Needle-felting is a very forgiving medium!

Next, twist some of the petals between your fingers here and there to add the feeling of movement.  Sunflower petals are always curling, turning and twisting, rarely laying flat!  You may wish to moisten your fingers or mist the petals slightly first and allow them to dry for more permanent shaping.

Your sunflower is finished!  It could now be sew onto a purse, hair clip, brooch or hat pin.  For a very finished look, or if the back will show, follow the pattern directions for cutting and layering the back.  You can sew right through the needle-felting and if you take delicate stitches, they will not show on the front.  If your stitches do show, simply layer a tiny bit more roving over and needle-felt in place.

For the hat pin below, I used scraps of wool to create a stem and blanket-stitched them together onto the sunflower back.

Care of your Sunflower(s):

Bear in mind that these flowers are hard to clean, being made of wool.  It is best to pin them on clothing, rather than sew them on, so that they can be easily removed before washing.

If using your sunflowers for decorations, you can dust them now and again by using a hairdryer on low, held 6-8 inches away.