This is part 1 of a series of my 2012 Halloween feature craft. This piece involves making some layered flowers with melted edges. There are several tutorials on the web for making these, so I guess mine will just be one more :o)
First gather the things you need:
First gather the things you need:
- A candle (soy preferred)
- Scissors
- A variety of synthetic fabrics (satin, chiffon, tulle & organza) - don't use natural fibers - those catch fire - synthetics melt.
Step 1: Cut out some crappy circles - I mean crappy. Don't make them nice & neat, make them so that you're not even sure they qualify as a "circlesque" object. Make them all different sizes (mine vary from about 2.5" to .05")
Step 2: Melt the edges of your circles over the candle flame. I like a soy candle because the flame stays lower & there's no residue smoking up from it. It's much easier to manipulate... soy candles just make a craft friendlier fire.
I like to lay my circles out on the scissors & gently move it around the flame. You need to hold it with something because it will get crazy hot. Synthetic fabric will burn & catch fire if you're not watching it, so keep your fabric moving. PS - you will have some jumpers. Just plan to loose a couple to the wax :o)
Step 2: Melt the edges of your circles over the candle flame. I like a soy candle because the flame stays lower & there's no residue smoking up from it. It's much easier to manipulate... soy candles just make a craft friendlier fire.
I like to lay my circles out on the scissors & gently move it around the flame. You need to hold it with something because it will get crazy hot. Synthetic fabric will burn & catch fire if you're not watching it, so keep your fabric moving. PS - you will have some jumpers. Just plan to loose a couple to the wax :o)
Step 3: Stack them up & pin them in place. I made a mix of all kinds because I wasn't sure how I wanted to stack them. They all stacked a bit differently
Step 4: Stitch them together. I like to stitch a little "X" in the center - then I begin with my beads. For these flowers, I didn't want the center to draw too much attention, so I used beads the blended in. I strung 3 beads to make a bridge & then added one bead to each side of the bridge - 5 beads per flower. Tie your knots off to the back.
To knot the back, put your needle through some fabric, loop the thread around it 3 times, then pull you needle straight. The 3 loops will scrunch down & form a knot.
Here's my batch of dark flowers... stay tuned to find out what I'm going to do with them.