My fingers hurt. But they're pretty.

One of my most favorite crafting projects seems to be making fabric flowers. I made them for Meghan to cheer her up, I made (a ton of) them for a friend's wedding as table decor, and I knew I would be bringing them in to my wedding somehow. (friend's wedding setup below...)

I started playing around with a bunch of types of fabric: laces, silks, and even a good bit of muslin just for the sake of fun (and to see how the fabrics responded to being made in to flowers). I took inspiration from these bouquets, but I wasn't quite bowled over with the idea of an all-brooch bouquet. But I still wanted a good bit of bling represented. So off I went on some thrifting adventures to purchase brooches, with a $5ish limit!The inspirations:

I used fabrics from a good friend's wedding dress remnants (little did she know), lace inserts from my mom's wedding bouquet, and some plain ol' good and simple fabrics I found at Jo-Anns. (I later added some pearl sprig-things for a bit more texture.)

After each flower was crafted (sewed), I glued on a circle of felt (with two holes cut) to the back, inserted the wire stem, and glue-gunned the heck out of them. Some of them got brooches, some of them were just fine without. I made enough of these flowers to start forming my bunch, saw what was missing, and filled in the rest.

From past weddings, I knew that heavy bouquets are THE WORST. Especially for the maid/ matron of honor. So I wanted it to be fairly small. Hand-size, if you will. So, um, yeah. Here she is.