The Handmade Fair - Mollie Makes Mash Up - Totes, Wearable

On Saturday I visited The Handmade Fair at Hampton Court Palace and spent the day looking at all things handmade. The first session I attended was the Mollie Makes Mash Up at the Super Theatre tent. Inside a large big top tent a huge audience of passionate crafters watched Jamie 'Mr X Stitch' Chalmers take on Lisa Comfort in a crafty challenge. Their task was to each take a plain calico tote bag sold from Hobbycraft and to transform it into something to wear. With a basic Brother sewing machine available to use and 45 minutes, the battle commenced.

Both Jamie and Lisa had chosen to create an apron, I thought it was a great choice of a wearable item as it can be made into any style and shape. Using the tote as their blank canvas they both started by unpicking the seams of the tote and then each went off into their own styles of making. Whilst they were making their aprons we could see what they were doing on the screen behind them and the close ups being filmed.

Jamie had some fun at the start by saying he was making two items, a bandana and an apron and tied a spare piece of his calico bag round his head. Lisa joined in and added a pretty piece of ribbon to her hair do too.

The concept of the mash-up was really intriguing, throughout the session it became really clear how distinct both makers are in their style and approach to handmade. Jamie decided his apron was going to have a punk feel and Lisa’s an element of precision and her signature vintage style. Over the 45 minutes the pair entertained us, talking through what they were making, telling us a few techniques, and we got to find out more about them, their businesses and their personalities too.

Jamie created a punk style lap apron, it was almost like a utility belt, he dismantled the entire tote with an unpicker and stitched on front pockets to his apron. He hadn't had a lot of experience with a sewing machine before but managed to create a great wearable piece. The apron was embellished with typography and statements using Tulip fabric pens and was roughly hemmed to finish it off and give it a distressed punk craft feel. The lettering he created on the front of the apron was impressive for the time he had and the idea of combining wording on a worn item using different styles of typography was a really interesting and different concept.

Lisa unpicked the majority of the tote and cleverly used one of the handles of the tote bag as the strap of the apron that goes over your neck. Lisa talked us through that she was using a box pleat and gathering to create the look she wanted. Using a mix of off the cuff sewing with no pins, and then precision pinning for the box pleat and gathering, she whipped up an impressive and pretty apron, using ribbons to add trimmings and covering up a few of the seams. The ribbons used were bright and sourced from India and added a great addition to the apron. Lisa finished her item so neatly, pressing and positioning her item initially on a mannequin to tidy up and check that the ends were trimmed and tidy.

It was a really entertaining session, with lots of laughter and was something I thoroughly enjoyed watching. The way the mash-up was set up and filmed so that each of their items as they made them  close up, gave you a small peak into their day to day world of handmade and just how each of them are very skilled in their own way and have a very different approach to making. At the end of the 45 minutes we took a vote to say whose item was our favourite, the vote was really close but Lisa won overall with her pretty traditional apron that she named 'Pinelope' (a clever name suggestion from the audience!).

The Mollie Makes Mash Up showed me how much you could make in the time given and how much one item can be transformed into something completely different with a creative approach. During the session I saw a clever mix of different approaches and styles to the task both Lisa and Jamie had in front of them. I will try to remember the way they both approached the task to inspire me next time I sit in front of my sewing machine. With lots of focus and determination and my sewing station set up I wonder what I could create in 45 minutes? I think after seeing this I may give it a go!

Designing my own patchwork quilt

Over the past few months I've been working on my own design for a patchwork quilt. I adore patchwork quilts and love working with and selecting patterned fabric. Making my own patchwork quilt for our home has been on my wish list for some time now. I have made basic patchwork quilts for other people and really enjoyed the process. I wanted to make a more complex patchwork quilt this time and have a sewing project that I have put my heart and soul into that is completely unique and something that would look great in our home.

I'm in the early stages of the quilt project and have so far designed three patchwork quilt blocks, each measuring 12 inches by 12 inches as a finished size. I'm not quite sure what the next phase of this project will be, I may continue to design a few more blocks or I may create a design that works around a central block or design. I want to keep it simple so that I finish the project but I'd love to experiment a little and make it a handmade project that I can be very proud of.

I'm using the Scrumptious fabric range by Bonnie and Camille and have selected the pink, red and mint colours out of the fabric range. I'm taking time to gradually work on this project to create the quilt blocks, sometimes cutting the fabric in a different sitting than the sewing. My favourite part is the sewing and piecing together the design and so far I have made nine 12 inch blocks.

Here are three designs of blocks. I have made three of each design using a mixture of fabrics so that each block looks different.

I have high hopes that this patchwork quilt will be completed by the end of this year. There is a long way to go but I would like to snuggle under this quilt during the winter and have it out in our home to use. I'll keep you updated with my progress.

Making a start on my Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt

In the summer I wrote about a sampler quilt that I wanted to make for our home using a fabric collection called Happy-Go-Lucky by Bonnie and Camille. It seems a really long time ago now but having unpacked a few more boxes, caught up with our friends and family, and my day job being a little less busy, I decided to finally make a start on this quilt project. Sewing a quilt is a perfect project to start in the winter, the rainy and cold days can be spent selecting bright fabrics, drinking tea, listening to the radio and gradually making a quilt block by block.

I have been pretty indecisive with this project and have spent quite a bit of time trying to work out what quilt project I really wanted to make, the choice was between the The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt or Tula Pink's City Sampler Quilt. Both options contain around 100 blocks to make and have a combination of easy and more challenging quilt blocks. I love both of the sampler quilts and the finished looks you can achieve, so it was a really tough choice. However after a lot of thought I decided to go for the first sampler quilt I had come across, The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt.  A few self-doubt niggles crept in during the decision making process, my main concern when picking this project was whether I am skilled enough to create such a huge and challenging quilt. The idea of piecing together super accurately small pieces does make me a little nervous however sometimes the most challenging and large scale projects can be the most rewarding!

On starting the quilt I decided that it will be a long term project, it isn't something I'm going to rush through, and I'm not giving myself a specific deadline. I love the idea of having a project like this that I can dip into each month and make the blocks as and when I want to and in whatever order I fancy! There are 111 in total so there are plenty to choose from.

At the beginning of the month I sat down and set up my sewing machine and gave myself a little bit of time to play around. It has been a long time since I have sat at the machine and made something. The light and space in our attic has made a huge difference to my sewing experience. I get excited at the thought of heading off to the attic for an hour or so, cutting fabric and piecing it together. I'm using the charm squares, jelly roll, mini charm squares and some additional fat quarters that I've bought to make the blocks. Each block is made up from a number of shapes, there are no measurements in the book, only a set of templates on a CD that you have to print out for each block.

I started at the beginning with block 1 - Attic Windows

and then made block 2 - Autumn Tints.

I really enjoyed picking the fabrics to use for each block. What makes this project a little less daunting is that using a fabric collection really does make life easier and simpler as all of the fabric designs are meant to work together.

After making these two blocks I decided to get myself organised. I worked through the book to see what blocks I'd like to make first, prioritising the ones that I felt looked like the easier options. I printed out a number of the shapes onto card and cut them out ready to use.

Today I made two more blocks, here's block 4 - Basket Weave

and block 5 - Bat Wing.

Here are all four quilt blocks together...

Seeing all four together makes me giddy with excitement, I can't imagine what it is going to be like with 111 of these blocks completed at the end. I'm loving the fresh bright colours in this fabric collection giving a boost to the grey cloudy days. I've got a long way to go with this project but having made a start on a project with such variety that can be worked on in small steps really excites me. I'll keep you posted with my progress and let you know how I get on.

Getting some inspiration...patchwork and quilt ideas

The fabric has been bought and now it's time to decide on the quilt design. I'm not quite sure what I am going make just yet, all I know is that I want to make quilt for our bed. It is going to be a big project and it certainly won't be a quilt project that I can make in a weekend! I want the project to be challenging and to try out some new patchwork and piecing techniques.

I've been busy book marking lovely quilts in my favourite quilt magazine Love Patchwork & Quilting. I've bought this gorgeous magazine from issue one and we are now at issue eleven. If you haven't already taken a look I'd highly recommend buying a copy! Love Patchwork & Quilting has a fantastic fresh design, includes modern quilt designs and inspiring projects. I love the fabric range and colour palettes the magazine uses and adore the round up of new fabrics in the industry. Each time I read it I get so excited and want to make something. I've been getting lots of inspiration from the magazine about how I could make my quilt and I am slowly working out ideas of what to do. I think I have about 6 quilts so far that I want to make so I will have to start narrowing down the options!

As I mentioned in my post about buying pre-cuts I have a real love of Camille Roskelley and her gorgeous colour palette and fabric design. I regularly read her lovely blog Simplify and I have both of her books. I really enjoy seeing how many different designs that you can achieve with pre-cuts. I'm slowly working my way through Camille's Craftsy course too and starting to get ideas and learning new techniques of speedy piecing.

I want to create a quilt that shows off the gorgeous fabric but also something that is a little different and designed by me. I'm torn as I would love to have a quilt with a consistent design but I don't want to get bored, I really want to learn new piecing skills so I think it may involve something a little different.

What better way to learn lots of skills than to create a sampler quilt! There are lots of traditional sampler quilts out there but I want something that I could create that I'd be really proud of and that I could gradually make over a number of months. A few years ago the Farmer's Wife Quilt was a huge trend in the quilt making blogosphere and I am seriously considering making my own. The book looks so old fashioned as the sampler squares use the dark and muddy fabrics that I'm really not keen on. Many quilters including Camille Roskelley have taken on the challenge and created a Farmer's Wife Quilt using bright modern and fresh fabrics to give the patterns a new lease of life. There are 111 different quilt blocks you can make measuring 6.5 by 6.5 inches for each complete block. The problem is that the individual shapes in the book are not given with dimensions, you have to print off the shapes and draw round them. I'm not sure it's what I want to do but I may do a bit of a trial to see if I have the patience. I know I'll learn a lot as there are some really complicated and fiddly designs!

Then there's Tula Pink, a fab personality in the quilt making world who has fabric lines, books and quilt designs under her belt. I bought her book 100 Modern Quilt Blocks this year and I love it. There are measurements of each block and shape used as well as ideas of assembling the quilt at the end. The book is really appealing as Tula uses lovely bright fabrics and makes it feel achievable, rather than a dark art of the Farmer's Wife Quilt book. The squares in her book also assemble to 6.5 by 6.5 inches and look really fresh and modern.

There are so many ideas that I'm working through at the moment. I've got some limits in terms of the fabric pre-cuts I have bought but there are plenty of options to make gorgeous designs with these. At the moment I'm thinking about going for a combination of my favourite blocks from each of the sampler quilt books and plan to make a few trial blocks to see what I like.

Watch this space to see how I get on!

Taking time to sew - my new Pink Button Tree

I created my original blog header in November 2011 on a rainy Sunday afternoon, I was new to blogging and needed to create a header for my blog so that I could get started. I don't think I realised then how much blogging would really mean to me and how much of a driver of change it would be in my life. I love the pink embroidered tree that I created back then, but I have grown and changed, as has my blog, it is time for a new look.

The project of creating a new blog header has been on my to do list for quite sometime. I have been planning a few ideas and thinking about what I wanted to do for well over a year now. I thought about perhaps commissioning an illustration of my vision of The Pink Button Tree, or that perhaps could I use a collage of photos to show what I do, or maybe I could create a combination of patchwork and embroidery stitches in an intricate panel...but I knew that I wanted to stay true to me and my blog vision, I wanted to use my first idea of a handmade, hand stitched tree with buttons. I wanted to create something simple and made by me.

With my return to blogging at the start of June I decided that I should update my blog header at the same time. I wanted to signal the fresh start in my blogging and creative journey and a brighter look and feel. I gathered the materials I had been collecting over the past year of so, I sat down and looked at everything for a while. I decided to go for a really simple look to make my header feel simple and fresh.

I used white cotton as a background and used some gorgeous linen for the trunk of the tree. I've never had a talent for drawing and have always gone for more abstract simple shapes. To help me create the tree shape I found a few images of trees online and started trying to sketch a tree shape. After quite a few attempts I finally reached something more in line of how I wanted for the feel of my blog.

I tried to transfer this onto the linen and ended up simplifying the look and changing it as I went. I used iron on interfacing on the linen to give it more stability and then cut it out. After cutting out I placed the tree shape on top of the white cotton background. I gave it a quick press on my ironing board and pressed the white cotton background. I wanted to arrange the buttons before I made a start to see if it all worked well together. I took real pleasure in sorting through my large collection of buttons I have stored in a jar and spent time selecting the buttons I wanted for the tree. I positioned the pink buttons and took this photo so I had a picture as reference of what I wanted to create.

I collected the buttons into a small dish and put them to one side. I then arranged the white cotton in a large embroidery hoop and placed the tree centrally. I didn't have any double sided interfacing left in my supplies so I used tacking stitches to lightly fasten the linen tree to the white cotton.

Along the outside edge of the tree I made small invisible stitches to secure the tree to the white background. It took quite a number of hours to complete but I made myself comfy on the sofa with cups of tea and had music playing in the background.

I love the finished tree and how the edges are not so straight, the linen started to fray and it gives it a really lovely organic look.

The next stage was to attach the buttons. During an evening when I was nursing a bad cold I decided to cheer myself up and attach the buttons to finish the tree. One by one I attached the buttons using pink embroidery thread. When I first started thinking about updating my blog header I had grand plans of using hundreds of pink French knots on the tree branches, and the thought crossed my mind again, but I decided to keep it simple and just use buttons.

I'm really proud of my new blog header, I took huge pleasure from making it and getting back into hand stitching and creating something. My Pink Button Tree will soon be framed and hung in my craft studio. I'm looking forward to having it near my desk, a continual reminder of my love of making, creating, writing and learning new things. The project came to life after lots of thinking, planning and reflecting, I think sometimes you need time to really work out what you want to do before making a big change. The new Pink Button Tree symbolises the beginning of the next stage on my creative journey and the start of a few simple developments on my blog.

My two-sided patchwork cushion cover

Over the past few years I have handmade cushion covers for our home. I love having my own handmade cushions in our home and enjoy how they look on our teal coloured sofas. I get a lot of pleasure each time I plump up the cushions knowing that I've made them myself and that they are unique.

For a number of months I've had my heart set on creating a new cushion cover for our snuggler sofa seat in our lounge. I spend a lot of time on the snuggler reading magazines, drinking tea, enjoying a spot of crochet and catching up on reading blogs, so I wanted this cushion cover to be something special for one of my favourite spaces in our home. 

Last year I bought some fabric specifically for making handmade projects for our home. The fabric collection was put together using a mix of navy, teal and grey patterned fabrics. I wanted to use these fabrics to make the new cushion cover. I decided that this project would be something different and I was keen to create a patchwork cushion cover to include all the patterned fabrics that I love and to try out new techniques of piecing fabrics together. I wanted to make something that wasn't piecing squares and I wanted to create my own patchwork design rather than take it from a book.

I decided to embark on making a two-sided patchwork cushion cover. I knew that one side of the cushion was going to be randomly sized rectangles but I wasn't too sure what the other side would be. After some deliberation I decided that equilateral triangles would be a good contrast, I really love the way they look in other projects I've seen. 

I spent time recently at my sewing machine finishing the cushion and I'm really pleased with the result.

I love the way the colours and patterns work together...

and that I've created two different cushions in one!

I love seeing all my favourite fabrics in one place...

and seeing how using patchwork can brighten up our teal coloured sofa.

I'm really pleased that I have finished this project, it has been a work in progress for such a long time and I wasn't sure I'd ever finish it! I'm glad that I spent time pondering how I wanted it to look. I'm really delighted that I decided to take the plunge to make the cushion two sided and try out something new for me. Joining together the equilateral triangles was a challenge initially but as soon as I worked out what I was doing it was good fun. Having a small project to work on made piecing different patchwork shapes easy to handle and not too daunting. I think I'm ready to try making something for our home on a larger scale now so watch this space!

Have you got any work in progress projects you have yet to finish or have recently finished? I'd love to hear about them.

Making a Roman blind

December has flown by and I have so much to update you on. For starters I managed to finish the Roman blind for our back door!On the 1st December I decided to dedicate the day to finishing the blind and putting the blind up.

Since then I have spent some time reflecting on the process of making the Roman blind, it really was one of the most challenging things I've ever attempted. The size of the project was huge and I dealt with three pieces of fabric measuring over 1m wide and almost 3m long. This meant rearranging the furniture in our lounge so I had a flat surface to work on. Luckily our floor is wooden so I managed to do the majority of the fabric pressing on the floor. I think the hardest thing was ensuring all of the measurements were accurate and the fabric remained straight and the seams were in line with the blue ticking stripes. I spent the majority of the time measuring, pressing and pinning and not much time sewing, that was the easy bit!

I do plan to share with you how I made my own Roman blind in another blog post in the next month or so, I just want to test out my instructions again when I make the second blind.

Here is my ta dah moment...my first Roman blind!

I love the fabric, the blue and white stripes go so well with our terracotta walls and other blue and white parts of our lounge and our teal sofa. I'm going to buy a pretty cord drop and a nicer looking cleat than came in the Roman blind kit to finish off the project properly. I'm really proud that I stuck with the project and completed it before the new year.

Roman blinds :: The project has started at last!

As winter is just around the corner I've been gradually adding a few new things to our home to make it even more cosy! I've been making a few cushions, have started a crochet blanket and last week our new scandi style striped rug arrived. This meant that I could finally make a start with the Roman blind project I have been planning for some time. I needed to wait until the rug arrived before I could make the final selection of the fabric and match the colours for the Roman blinds I am making for the same room. It has started to feel quite a bit colder in the evenings with a few nights recently edging closer to zero, so this gave me the push I needed to start.

Last weekend I finally made a start with the Roman blind for the back door. The fabric I'm using is a wide ticking navy fabric from John Lewis. I headed off to John Lewis on Saturday morning with my measurements and bought enough material for the two Roman blinds that I'm making, plus the lining and interlining. The sash window and door are really draughty so I need to make quite thick blinds.

I am making my own handmade Roman blinds for our home using a kit but the instructions have been a little limited! I've had to buy a few extra things, such as Roman Blind Tape and cord as the amount in the kit wasn't enough. Our door has a window above it making it taller than any of the Roman blind kits I could find. The poor instructions included the kit have meant to I have spent some time reading lots of websites with how-to's, looking in books and watching videos on YouTube to pull together an idea of how to make Roman blinds.

While I'm making the blinds I'm writing a how-to that I will share with you so that you can make blinds too. There are lots of ways to make and finish Roman blinds but I cannot find a tutorial out there that combines the finish that I want so things are taking a little longer than planned because I'm writing the steps myself and finding out what works and doesn't work as I move through the process.

I'm hoping to finish this project for our home before the end of the year so I'll keep you updated.

Autumn :: A time to learn something new – Curtain making

During the autumn I love to get stuck into learning something new. Over the years I've taken a knitting class, photography class, online blogging class, and started scrapbooking. I feel that this point of the year is such a great time to start a new chapter in our lives, perhaps it's because my body clock is still in tune with the academic year. With a new school term came the urge to enter the next phase of learning and personal development, with the fun things like selecting a brand new notepad and pens, but also with it for me came bags of motivation to get learning.

I'm using One Little Word to help me shape my year and help achieve my goals for the year. My word is ‘grow’ and each month I set myself an intention to help me keep a focus on my word. Some of my intentions for the months during autumn are to ‘grow a new seed’, ‘make time to grow’, and ‘grow a cosy home’. I wanted to do something this autumn that may cross all three and to learn a new skill.

Growing a cosy home is really important to me so that Mr C and I can enjoy our space even more than we already do. The evenings are getting darker earlier, the night time temperatures are starting to drop, and so creating a cosy home is really on my mind. When I spend time at home during this time of the year I like to curl up under a blanket, get my craft on and enjoy our home. We live in a lovely Grade II listed building built in the 1760’s with lovely sash windows, however our flat can be a little draughty and cold at times. With the past few winters seeming to get harsher, the more frequent snow fall and freezing weather, I want to ensure our space is warmer than it has been in previous years. To achieve this I have set myself a very big project indeed! A few weeks ago I wrote about my new fabric stash, this will soon be cut into to make new cushions and at some point a quilt. However the biggest project I hope to complete is to make curtains for our bedrooms and to make Roman blinds for our lounge.

I decided during late summer that if I was going to achieve my intentions for the year I would need to get kick started somehow. I had looked in books for instructions on curtain making but for something so big as making curtains I felt I needed a different approach. I thought it would be best to take a course. I haven’t been on any proper sewing classes so it would be a new experience for me.

I decided to book myself onto a curtain making workshop run by The Makery in Bath. The curtain making class lasted 3.5 hours and was an intermediate level class run by lovely lady called Cerys, who broke down the steps of making a curtain into easy and achievable chunks. We were given detailed step by step notes showing how to work out the quantity of fabric required to make a pair of curtains, and then how to make lined pencil pleat curtains. The class covered all the essentials such as hemming, measuring, cutting and some great practical sewing tips. I came away with a sample curtain that I can use as a guide when I make the actual curtains. I loved the class and will definitely sign up for more classroom learning to improve my sewing skills.

I hope that over the next few weeks to make time to think about making the curtains, start growing a new skill and hopefully making our home even cosier. I’m going to start with the curtains and see how I get on, then hopefully progress with the skills I have onto Roman blinds! I have it on good authority that John Lewis have a great Roman blind making kit with good instructions, so I’m going to brave it without going to a class for those. Wish me luck!

A Pinwheel quilt - Work in progress

After an inspiring trip to The Festival of Quilts I decided to kick start a new project this weekend. I have been researching how to make a quilt using triangles for a quite a while but haven't had the chance to try it out. I decided to take my first step into triangles by making a pinwheel quilt using quarter square triangles. I looked at a video about how to make pinwheels by the Missouri Star Quilt Company to get started. It made it look so easy, and it was!

I've spent some time this weekend looking through my fabric stash and deciding what colours to put together. I wanted to make a multicoloured rainbow quilt as it is a present for a friends's baby girl. I'm not too sure what the quilt will look like yet but I've started piecing together some pinwheels.

I'm looking forward to making a more of these over the next few weeks and will keep you posted on my progress.

How to Make a Ribbon Rosette

Ribbon rosettes are a simple and easy accessory to make. All you need is some ribbon, pinking shears, a needle and thread, and a button. These rosettes were made for a Handmade Hen Party that I helped organise. These ribbon rosettes look great worn on a jacket or cardigan like a brooch, or as a pretty addition pinned to a bag. You can raid your ribbon stash to see what you have or buy a few lengths of ribbon to make a special project. These ribbon rosettes were made as brooches that matched a wedding colour theme of purple, sage green and lemon yellow.

To make your own ribbon rosette follow these simple steps.

To make a handmade ribbon rosette you need to gather together a few different lengths of ribbon (see the list below). I used three colours as I wanted to contrast each layer of the rosette, using a wide dark coloured ribbon as the base layer through to a thinner light coloured ribbon as the final layer. I used pinking shears to cut the ribbon to make the ends of the ribbon pretty and to help ensure that the ends did not fray. You could use any colour of ribbon and use different widths of ribbon, these are just a guide of what I did.

What you'll need to make one rosette:

Purple ribbon - 63cm (2.5cm wide)
Sheer purple ribbon - 36cm (2.5cm wide)
Green ribbon - 39cm (1.5cm wide)
Sheer green ribbon - 20cm (1cm wide)
Pleated green ribbon - 20cm (1cm wide)
Yellow ribbon - 20cm (1cm wide)
Sheer yellow ribbon - 26cm (1cm wide)
Scrap of purple fabric
Small piece of iron on interfacing
Purple button
Safety pin
Purple and yellow thread
Pinking shears
Needle
To add a bit of sparkle you need one silver gem and glue

How to make a ribbon rosette:

1) Cut three pieces of wide purple ribbon each measuring 21cm long. I chose purple ribbon measuring 2.5cm wide.

2) Find a scrap of fabric in a similar colour to the wide ribbon you have selected. Use iron on interfacing to strengthen the fabric then cut a circle of fabric 5cm in diameter using your pinking shears.

3) Fold over each piece of purple ribbon so that the ends overlap each other by 2cm to 3cm. Thread your needle and make a knot in the thread. Arrange the three pieces of purple ribbon in a star shape like the picture below, where the ribbon overlaps make sure these face the back of the rosette. Pass the needle from the back of the ribbon star, through the middle of each piece of folded ribbon to the front and back through again. Do this a few times so that the three pieces of ribbon are securely fastened.

4) Add the fabric circle to the back of the rosette, this creates some stability for the rosette when you start adding the next few layers of ribbon.

5) Next, cut 3 pieces of sheer purple ribbon, 12cm in length. You can sew these to the back of the rosette now, or like I did added them at the end. I chose sheer purple ribbon that measured 2.5cm in width to compliment the solid purple ribbon.

6) Cut three pieces of green ribbon measuring 13cm each. Fold over each piece of ribbon with 1cm of overlap on each end, sew all three pieces together in a star shape like the image below.

7) Cut two pieces of yellow ribbon measuring 10cm each. Fold over each piece of yellow ribbon so that you double over equal lengths of ribbon. Here you will create a smaller set of ribbon pieces, sew together in a cross shape.

8) Cut 1 piece of sheer yellow ribbon, 2 pieces of sheer green ribbon and 2 pieces of pleated green ribbon, each of the 5 pieces measures 10cm in length. Arrange these together to create a tail for the rosette and securely fasten to the back of the fabric circle.

9) Cut two pieces of sheer yellow ribbon 8cm long and arrange on your rosette like the picture below.

10) Add the green and yellow ribbons on top of the sheer yellow ribbon pieces like the image below. Sew together passing the needle through the middle of all the ribbons and back through again.

11) Pass the needle back through the rosette and add a contrasting purple button for decoration. Sew the button on making sure you pass the needles through all layers so the rosette holds its shape, this provides the rosette with stability so go through the button a few times.

12) Add the sheer purple ribbon cut in step 5 to the back of your rosette. Now add a safety pin to the back and pin to your top! For an evening look I added a touch of sparkle by using some glue to attach a silver gem.

I made 14 of these rosettes for a Handmade Hen Party as a gift for everyone to take away.