hi there and welcome to this video in
which I'm going to be teaching you how
to make these lovely floral appliques
now this is actually part of a two piece
floral foam ball in which I'm actually
going to be taking these appliqués and
embellishing a peplum blouse that I've
made so if you are interested in seeing
how these appliques fit into the sewing
project that I've designed then go ahead
check out the description box down below
where you can see all pertinent videos
of this sewing series listed in
chronological order so you can follow
along if you so wish now I do want to
mention that these are only part of the
total applique scheme that I have lined
up for this project I also have leaves
and vines but I didn't include them in
this video
because I felt it get too lengthy so I'm
gonna cover the actual making of the
vines and the leaves in two successive
videos but right now we're just gonna be
focusing on making the actual flower now
a little overview of these flowers as
you can see these two here are slightly
different than this one and this is the
one I'm going to be teaching you how to
make here the only difference is there's
an extra layer of fabric in these
flowers because as I mentioned it
corresponds directly with my actual
two-piece ensemble this is from the
skirt that I've made for the ensemble so
it just helps establish flow in the
project that's the only difference you
will see that there are three layers in
the flower that we're going to be making
and they are hand-painted / hand dyed
and then in the center of the flower you
can see that they're embellished with
some crystals now I'm gonna go ahead and
describe to you the actual materials and
tools you will need to actually make
these pretty flowers so in terms of
supplies for these flowers one of the
primary things that you will need is
tada basic muslin alright and this is an
actual very heavyweight muslin that I've
used for these flowers this is what the
three layers are comprised of now you
can go ahead and use a lightweight
muslin whatever you so wish it will
affect the actual look of your flower
obviously if you use something that's a
little more lightweight your flower is
gonna look a little more dainty and
maybe slightly ruffle II and fluffier so
that's all up to you then in terms of
how we're going to actually put the
color onto the floor
we're going to be using fabric markers
now you can use dye or whatever is
easiest for you but I particularly like
these markers these are called tea juice
markers and I believe I got them from a
company called Dharma Trading Company I
will put the link in the description bar
down below but what I like about these
fabric markers is if I open this up here
you'll see that it has a very rounded
tip that's wide it allows you to sort of
just stipple the actual marker on the
fabric so it allows for some precision
but it's very good for blending which is
very handy for this project so I quite
like them and I have them in orange
yellow sky blue blue and pink so that's
what I had to work with then if you want
to get a little more fancy with the
actual look of your flowers that you can
see how there's sort of striations in
the flower which I've actually sort of
painted in a way now typically you would
probably want some painters tools for
this project I didn't have any so
everything I have in terms of tools is a
bit makeshift so I actually have some
baking tools right here that usually you
would sculpt icing or what-have-you with
so I actually took the sharp edges of
the tools here and was able to get added
dimension in my flowers and I will teach
you how to do that but having some
brushes or maybe just a tool that has a
sharp edge like a spatula might be handy
for this project and then obviously you
want your embellishment for the center
of your flower as I mentioned I use
crystal beads as you can see here I have
these Swarovski beads that I picked up
off of artbeads.com
and I like artbeads.com because they
frequently have sails and these are
three millimeters now that's a very
small bead to be working with so you can
obviously order larger beads if you want
to do crystals if you want bolder effect
but they do get more expensive the
bigger the crystal right so that's
something to consider the other thing is
if you are going to be using
particularly small beads you'll more
than likely need a special meal to
actually sit through these beads so I'm
gonna show you what that looks like here
here I have an English beading needle
size 12 okay and that should work
beautifully for this project it's very
very thin and tiny and the needle is
extraordinarily narrow and difficult to
thread but working with these small
beads it's something you will need if
you decide to use the small beads you'll
also see that I have a bit of very clear
transparent thread hanging out here so
if you happen to be using crystals to
embellish the center of your flower like
I am or glass beads really with sharp
edges you may want to actually use
something called fireline beading thread
alright and here I have it in the
crystal color and it's sort of it's sort
of similar to fishing line a very
lightweight form of fishing line now if
you were to use traditional thread you
just run the risk of the actual thread
being cut by the glass edges of the
crystals or the beads that you're using
if you don't think you're gonna be
getting a lot of wear and tear perhaps
on these appliqués then maybe you can
just stick with traditional thread but
it's just something to consider in case
you're worried about your actual beads
cutting through your thread you can do a
google search for this and it should pop
up fireline beading thread I got mine
off eBay and I got it in the four pound
variety and it works great for this
project so this thread and the needle
for the crystal embellishment might be
something that you might want to
purchase so that's pretty much it in
terms of materials other than things
like you're gonna need your scissors to
cut the fabric and obviously you'll want
some thread to actually adhere the
layers together and gather the flowers
into that cup like shape so I actually
because I'm using heavyweight muslin I'm
using very heavy thread and a larger
needle to do that so that is also
something to keep in mind if you happen
to be using a very heavy weight fabric
so that's about it now we can begin the
actual tutorial I did forget to mention
that you actually might want to protect
your work surface as well
so I've gone ahead and laid down a layer
of saran wrap just so I don't get my
kitchen counters all mucky and gucky
we're going to begin with an actual
square of fabric now this is going to
the dimensions of the square are going
to largely depend on what you're going
for I would say start with a very large
square we are going to be trimming this
pour our flowers so it is going to get
smaller so what you want to do I would
say is start with the largest layer of
your flower so if you want a large
flower maybe you want to start with
something that's five six inches you
know and because then we're going to
actually build the flower and create
successively smaller squares so this one
here is four inches by four inches so
maybe my next square of fabric that I
will place on top of this is going to be
three and a half by three and a half and
then the next one may be three by three
so something like that so this isn't
going to wind up as being too big of a
flower once I get done with it because
as I mentioned we're going to trim this
square into a flower shape so in order
to do that we're gonna do some fancy
folding and you can create whatever
flower shape you wish but this is just
sort of a quick way to do it so I'm just
gonna take the square and fold it in
half corner to corner diagonal fold
doesn't have to be super precise at all
and then I'm just gonna take one corner
one of those diagonal corners and I'm
gonna fold it up like so feel like this
is origami it's just going to extend
that tip of the diagonal is going to
extend just a bit past this main peak
that we've created here
okay and then you're gonna do the same
thing with the other side try and line
it up such that the edges are even over
here and it'll kind of look like an
arrowhead I don't know the best the best
description for that a bit like an
arrowhead
and then after you have that you'll just
fold it down the center like so alright
and now what you're gonna do is you're
just gonna go on this end this very
jagged II end the arrowhead end and
you're going to actually cut a circular
shape all right and then when you open
it up you have your little flower shape
so there is our first layer of our
flower and here we have the second layer
of my flower the square is measuring
about three and a half inches by three
and a half inches and I'm just going to
do the same thing that I did with my
base layer
I'm gonna cut the top off in a rounded
manner so here's our second layer of our
flour that's gonna go right on top of
our first like so and you can really see
how they fit nicely together
and here's my last layer of my flour the
smallest one which is three inches by
three inches
and opening it up as you can see I
actually trimmed a good portion off
because I want the difference in my top
layer to be pretty dramatic versus my
other layers so I trimmed off a good
portion on that edge we have all the
layers of our flower ready to be dyed so
now for actually coloring the flowers
what I like to do is work from lightest
to darkest so I take the center of my
flower right the smallest in dimension
of my layers and that's usually where
you know the bright burst of color
happens so usually your yellows and your
oranges but you can make your flowers
look however you wish so what I
essentially begin doing is just with
these markers I just begin dabbing them
on like so okay and you don't need to
have a really regular pattern that's
what's great about this and then as I
mentioned for me because I don't have
any brush tools or anything
I use my makeshift baking tools and
while the the the marker is still wet
I'm able to actually take the marker out
a bit like that
okay then generally what you're going to
want to do is you're going to want to
wait for that to dry that can take a
long time depending on how much you
stippled
on right so impatient aja here I usually
just start my next color I'm going to go
ahead and go in with some orange because
if these do end up bleeding together
it's a safe bet that actually the color
is not going to look bad it's gonna be a
nice transition actually so what I like
to do then is I actually like to go
around the very edge of the flower and I
like to put a deep border okay right on
that edge like that see you can be
pretty irregular I think the more
irregular you make this actually the
cooler it can become now go ahead with
my little tool here and I'm going to
start pulling that marker
fit into the center of the flower and
what can also help is that actually you
just take your tool dip it in there this
actually would work really great if I
had a brush as I mentioned so now that I
have the center of my flower finished
I'm going to go to the second layer of
my flower and I'm just gonna continue
the color scheme and I'm going to use
that orange and actually start from the
center and have it come out right and
kind of just brush it do whatever you
wish now I'm just gonna do what I did on
the first flower and I have so much
fabric marker that I've placed in the
center there that you can see how when I
start sweeping it out from the center it
really makes this creat fan-like shape
and now I'm going to complete the border
in another color and I'm debating I
think I'll actually go for pink now this
happens to be a pretty light pink I wish
it were a deeper pink but we'll try and
make it work let's see I'm gonna go
ahead and I'm going to once again bring
a lot of that fabric marker toward the
interior of the flower what I'm doing is
taking the sharp end of my tool here
this is the one thing that I actually
see maybe sharp sculpting tools being
good for this is because you can
actually sort of remove some of that
marker that you've laid down I don't
know if you can see this but it
literally pushes it aside and you can
get these fine tip striations right here
and I really think that contributes to
the overall look of the flower when you
look at it up close and now we come to
our base of the flower the biggest layer
of our flower and I'm just gonna go
ahead and continue because I did a pink
border here once again I'm gonna start
at the center of my largest flower and
continue that color scheme and this time
as you can see I'm really just making
the entire flower pink and now I've just
done what I've been doing is taking my
sharp edge tool and really inserting
those fine-tipped striations and now if
you want to add more dimension to your
flowers what you can do is wait for your
first layer of dye to dry and then go
back over and do some more detailing so
for instance this is the center of my
flower I want to actually fill it out a
bit more like these two flowers
so now that I've amped up the intensity
especially on the center of my flower
you know you can go back and really
layer those fabric markers to build up
the intensity to build up the realism
and then what I would recommend is once
everything dries you'll see that I've
done this already on the back side of
the flower here I've gone ahead and
filled it in with some color
and you'll probably want to do that on
all layers of your flour just because
once we actually gather the flour layers
together they may pop up such that the
reverse side is visible so as I
mentioned wait for the topside to dry
and then maybe fill in a little color on
the back side so now that our flour
layers are dry you can go ahead and
assemble them as you wish and we're
going to actually adhere them together
with some thread and at the same time
we're gonna gather the flour at its
center so it creates that cup like shape
that you would see in nature so what
I've done here is that just taken some
rather thick thread and because I'm
using a very heavyweight muslin fabric
I'm using a very heavy-duty thread which
is actually buttonhole thread and it's
thread that also happens to match the
garment I'm making so there's that but
typically you would probably want to use
thread that matches your flour all right
so what I've done is I've just threaded
my needle and I've left the end
unknotted because I'm gonna actually use
that as a tail to gather so I'm just
leaving that there and then I'm actually
stitching a concentric ring right at the
center so just doing this hopefully
you'll be able to see it doesn't have to
be really accurate or anything at all
especially if you're using very thick
fabric you don't want a lot of stitches
there because it's gonna be too tight
together okay so there we have that and
now all I'm gonna do is I'm going to
take these two thread tails and I'm just
gonna pull pull as hard as I can now I'm
just gonna secure it by making a very
tight knot at the back okay so I've
double knotted that back there made it
nice and secure and then you can see
from the front see even though I had
green thread it's really not visible
because we pulled it so taut but it
really creates that sort of floor
shape and you can sort of play with this
and spread the flower out a bit and then
the last thing to do obviously just
gonna snip these threads we're gonna end
up sewing that down so that's not gonna
matter much what is back there now we
come to the crystal embellishment phase
yay fun so what you'll do is you'll
thread your tiny little needle if you
happen to be using tiny little beads
with your thread or your fire line and
then you'll obviously not the end of
your thread right there so now we're
just gonna actually take this needle and
if you are using the English size 12
needle it is very delicate so if you
happen to be working your way through
very thick muslin with it be gentle with
it kind of maneuver it on through
because it is a super delicate needle so
I'm just gonna go right up in the center
between my stitching just like that you
can see my needle coming up I'm gonna
pull that on through so all I'm gonna do
is I'm gonna take about five crystals on
my needle so there are my five crystals
and I'm just gonna string them on down
just like so okay and then I'm just
gonna go right back down through the
center of my flower very close to where
I came up and pull that on through and
as you can see it creates a little loop
of crystals just like that
so I've knotted off my first crystal
loop in the back and then I'm just going
to do the same thing I'm going to go
right back up through the center now I'm
gonna begin a new crystal loop using
five crystal beads once again on my
needle so there are two crystal bead
loops and now I'm gonna go ahead and add
a third right up through that Center
again and making a loop with my beads
and going right back down and there we
have our embellished crystal Center
twinkle-twinkle and now I'm just gonna
go ahead tie off the thread in the back
and our flower will be complete and of
course you can
as many of these as big or as small as
you want with as many crystals or as few
crystals as you want and use them to
embellish whatever you wish thank you
for joining me and I'll see you soon
for when I'll be teaching you how to
make the leaves and vines to accompany
these pretty little flowers bye bye