March | 2016 | cottonjennyfabrics

Hello again, Reader.

Spring is creeping in everywhere, taking winter’s place and putting me in a good mood. So to join in the fun, I thought I’d share these instructions for simple, pretty felt flowers. I like this idea for a number of reasons: it’s dead easy, so it’s great to do with little helpers. The results are pretty and versatile. You can use them to dress up pretty much any surface imaginable. They’d make great additions to spring-time cardigans, festive table-runners, or even bobby-pins and hairbands for the flower child in all of us. They’d also make great bouquets and wreaths, depending on their size.

These bright little blossoms are also great because they are so easy to customise. They can be any size, shape, and colour you like. The plain version that I’ve detailed here look a bit like ranunculi or shrub roses, but depending on how you customise your blooms, they might look completely different. You can dress them up with beads and buttons. You can use pinking shears to make any kind of petal you can think of. The instructions below stick with the basics, but your flowers can look any way you choose.

The final reason I love these pretty petals is that they use up left-over felt. I always seem to have felt flotsam and jetsam floating around in my sewing cubby. Where does it come from? Why is it there? I don’t have the answers to these questions, but happily, with these flowers, it doesn’t really matter. I can use it up instead of leaving it to take up space.

So let’s get growing. Here’s what you’ll need:

felt (any colour- I usually try to have two colours for petals and leaves, but that’s up
to you)
scissors/shears
needle and cotton thread

Now that you’ve got all your equipment together, here’s how to get started:

Step 1: Using your shears, cut circles of different sizes into the felt you want to use for your petals. In my case, I’m going to save the green felt for leaves, but the red and lilac felt are for petals. If you are making felt flowers with children, you may need to help them with this step: shears are very sharp, and child-safe scissors are often not sharp enough to cut through felt (or any other fabric, for that matter).

Step 1

Step 2: Cut each felt circle into a spiral, starting from the outside and working your way towards the centre. Once you reach the middle, cut the absolute centre out of your spiral, so that there’s a small hole in the middle. If you want textured petals, now is the time to trim one side of the felt spiral into any repeated shape you like. This side will be the top of your flower. It should look like this:

Step 2

Step 3: Beginning from the centre of your spiral, roll up the felt strip. It should look a bit like a cinnamon roll. I found it helpful to pinch it gently between my fingers to keep it flat. Keep rolling until you’ve reached the end of your felt strip. Put your little roll of felt down flat.

Step 3

Step 4: Leaving your felt roll for a moment (don’t worry, it won’t unravel: felt sticks to itself), thread your needle. Now carefully pick up your little roll like you did when you were rolling it up (that is, pinched between your fingers). Imagining that you are trying to skewer your felt cinnamon bun with your needle, sew from one side of your roll to the other. Be careful not to let the thread show at the top.Your thread should pass through every layer of felt, so that none of your ‘petals’ will come loose. Depending on the size of your felt roll, you may need to do this in a few places, but for my little flowers, one or two stitches was enough. When you are certain that your roll won’t come un-done, knot your thread on the underside of your flower, and trim any excess thread.If you are making these flowers with children, you’ll likely need to help them with this step.*

Step 4

Step 5: Customise your flower! You could add felt leaves to the bottom of your blooms. Beads or buttons sewn into the centres could be fun. When you are happy with how your flowers look, you can applique them to cloth, attach them to pipe-cleaner stems to make a bouquet, or onto a wreath for added texture and colour. Let your imagination go a little wild: felt is a very flexible, forgiving fabric, so you have lots of options.

Step 5: Finished!

*If, dear Reader, the very thought of threading a needle makes your stomach churn and your head ache, never fear! These flowers are just as easy to make using a hot glue gun, or even good-quality fabric glue. Instead of sewing them as described in Step 4, simply put a little dot of glue on each layer as you roll the felt up, and let it dry. You can also use glue to attach any fun stuff (beads, buttons, glitter, leaves, etc). If you are using a hot glue gun, do be careful to avoid burns. Young children should not use glue guns, so if you are making these flowers with your little ones, you’ll need to help them with step.

Have any comments or questions about these instructions? Leave me a comment below! I’d love to hear from you! Bonus points for pictures of your own felt flowers! I hope you’re inspired to get growing some of your own felt flowers, and that these instructions have put a little Spring in your step!

Until next time, Reader.

Yours,

Cotton Jenny

Hello again, Reader.

I’ve been going over older posts, and thought that now would be as good a time as any to start building a glossary. It never hurts to be as clear as possible about what we mean when we use particular terms. The world of fabrics is full of them: the sheer number can overwhelm even the expert among us.

But not matter what your level of experience is, having a handy guide at your disposal to recall spellings, definitions, and examples can only help. Most of the definitions come from the Merriam-Webster or the trusty OED, although I’ve cut out some of the more superfluous bits, and focused on the really important, juicy stuff, so that you can find the information you want at a quick glance.

So here’s the beginning of an on-going glossary of terms that crop up frequently in this exciting, varied world. Let’s get stuck in!

A

Angora: downy coat produced by the Angora rabbit.

Angora

B

Batik: (n) a fabric printed by an Indonesian method of hand-printing textiles by coating with wax the parts not to be dyed; the method itself.

Batik

Bobbin: (n) a round object with flat ends and a tube in its center around which thread or yarn is wound.

Bobbinet: (n) a machine-made net of cotton, silk, or nylon usually with hexagonal mesh.

Boiled wool: (n) created by a mechanical process using water and agitation, shrinking knitted or woven wool or wool-blend fabrics, compressing and interlocking the fibers into a tighter felt-like mass.

Bouclé:(n) an uneven yarn of three plies one of which forms loops at intervals.

Brocade:(n) a cloth with a raised design in gold or silver thread.

Brocade

Bunting:(n) a lightweight loosely woven fabric used chiefly for flags and festive decorations.

Burlap:(n) a strong, rough fabric that is used mostly for making bags.

C

Calico:(n) a light, printed cotton cloth :a heavy, plain white cotton cloth

Calico

Cambric:(n) a light, thin, white linen or cotton cloth

Cashmere:(n) a fine wool from a kind of goat from India :a soft fabric made from cashmere wool.

Chambray:(n) a lightweight clothing fabric with colored warp and white filling yarns.

Charmeuse:(n) a fine semi-lustrous crepe in satin weave.

Chenille:(n) a wool, cotton, silk, or rayon yarn with protruding pile;also:a pile-face fabric with a filling of this yarn.

Chiffon:(n) a sheer fabric especially of silk.

Chiffon

Chintz:(n) a shiny cotton fabric with a flowery pattern printed on it.

Cloth: a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres.

Corduroy:(n) a durable usually cotton pile fabric with vertical ribs or wales.

Cotton:(n) a soft, white material that grows on the seeds of a tall plant and that is used to make cloth;also: the plants on which this material grows.

Cotton

Cotton gin:(n) a machine that separates the seeds, hulls, and foreign material from cotton.

Crêpe:(n) a thin often silk or cotton cloth that has many very small wrinkles all over its surface.

Crinoline:(n) an open-weave fabric of horsehair or cotton that is usually stiffened and used especially for interlinings and millinery.

Crochet:(v) a method of making cloth or clothing by using a needle with a hook at the end to form and weave loops in a thread.

D

Damask:(n) a thick usually shiny cloth that has patterns woven into it.

Denim:(n) a firm durable twilled usually cotton fabric woven with colored warp and white filling threads.

Denim

Double knit:(n) a knitted fabric (as wool) made with a double set of needles to produce a double thickness of fabric with each thickness joined by interlocking stitches: an article of clothing made of such fabric

Double weave: (n) a kind of woven textile in which two or more sets of warps and one or more sets of weft or filling yarns are interconnected to form a two-layered cloth, allowing complex patterns and surface textures to be created.

Duck:(n) (Dutch) also simply duck, sometimes duck cloth or duck canvas, a heavy, plain woven cotton fabric.

E

Embroidery:(n) the art or process of forming decorative designs with hand or machine needlework:a design or decoration formed by or as if by embroidery: an object decorated with embroidery.

Embroidery

Embroidery floss:(n) a loosely twisted, slightly glossy 6-strand thread, usually of cotton but also manufactured in silk, linen, and rayon, and the standard thread for cross-stitch.

Fabric: (n) any textile or cloth that is considered to be man-made.

Faille:(n) a somewhat shiny closely woven silk, rayon, or cotton fabric characterized by slight ribs in the weft.

Felt: (n) a soft, heavy cloth made by pressing together fibers of wool, cotton, or other materials.

Felt

Fibre: (n) (Latin) a natural or synthetic substance that is significantly longer than it is wide.

Fishnet:(n) a coarse, open-mesh fabric.

Flannel:(n) a soft twilled wool or worsted fabric with a loose texture and a slightly napped surface: a napped cotton fabric of soft yarns simulating the texture of wool flannel: a cotton fabric usually napped on one side.

Fleece:(n) the coat of wool covering a wool-bearing animal (as a sheep): the wool obtained from a sheep at one shearing: any of various soft or woolly coverings: a soft bulky deep-piled knitted or woven fabric used chiefly for clothing.

G

Gabardine:(n) a firm hard-finish durable fabric (as of wool or rayon) twilled with diagonal ribs on the right side.

Gauze: (n) a thin often transparent fabric used chiefly for clothing or draperies: a loosely woven cotton surgical dressing.

Georgette:(n) a sheer crepe woven from hard-twisted yarns to produce a dull pebbly surface.

Gingham:(n) a clothing fabric usually of yarn-dyed cotton in plain weave.

Gingham

Grosgrain: (n) a strong close-woven corded fabric usually of silk or rayon and often with cotton filler.

Haircloth: (n) any of various stiff wiry fabrics especially of horsehair or camel hair used for upholstery or for stiffening in garments.

Heather: (adj) refers to interwoven yarns of mixed colors producing flecks of an alternate color. It is typically used to mix multiple shades of grey or grey with another color to produce a muted shade (e.g., heather green), but any two colors can be mixed, including bright colors.

Hemp: (n) a tall widely cultivated Asian herb (Cannabis sativaof the family Cannabaceae, the hemp family) that has a tough bast fiber used especially for cordage and that is often separated into a tall loosely branched species (C. sativa) and a low-growing densely branched species (C. indica): the fiber of hemp.

Herringbone:(n) a pattern made up of rows of parallel lines which in any two adjacent rows slope in opposite directions: a twilled fabric with a herringbone pattern; also :a suit made of this fabric

Herringbone

Holland cloth: (n) a plain woven or dull-finish linen used as furniture covering or a cotton fabric made more or less opaque by a glazed or unglazed finish (the Holland finish).

Houndstooth:(adj) a usually small broken-check textile pattern; also: a fabric woven in this pattern —called also houndstooth check, hound’s-tooth check.

I will be continually up-dating these posts with new terms, and, as the title of this post suggests, there will be two more ‘Glossary’ posts, for I-P, and Q-Z, so keep an eye peeled for those! Looking for a particular definition, term, or information that you don’t see? Leave your comments, questions, and requests below! I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

Until next time, Reader.

Yours,

Cotton Jenny

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Monthly Archives: March 2016

Felt Flowers

Glossary A-H

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B

C

D

E

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