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Saturday, September 7, 2013

Organza Flower Hairclip Tutorial

I'm not really a hat person, but wanted something to wear in my hair for my brother's November wedding. After some Googling, I decided to make an organza flower hairclip.


This tutorial will show you how to make such a hairclip and is based on reading and watching many others' tutorials (thank you... sorry I don't remember who you all are!) and my own experiments.

You will need:
(Ignore the glue, I didn't need this in the end!)
  • Organza (I used three colours: purple, fuchsia and lilac, but you can have just one or two)
  • Plain hairclip
  • Needle and thread
  • Small brooch, bead or button
  • Sharp scissors
  • Candle and a match
  • 5 various sized circular objects ( I used 3", 3.5", 4", 4.5" and 5")
  • Felt tip pen
Instructions:
  1. Draw around one of your circular objects on each of the colours of organza. I used 2 purple and 1 fuchsia circle in each size. It's up to you how you divide your colours, but you basically want 3 circles of each of the 5 sizes.
       
          I only used lilac for the smallest circle, so for the 3" I had 1 circle in each colour.

          Put another way:
       
          5" circle: 2 purple, 1 fuchsia
          4.5" circle: 2 purple, 1 fuchsia
          4" circle: 2 purple, 1 fuchsia
          3.5" circle: 2 purple, 1 fuchsia
          3" circle: 1 purple, 1 fuchsia, 1 lilac
 
         You should end up with 15 circles, although you may decide you want more or less. Likewise, you can choose different sizes. Your finished flower will be slightly smaller than your largest circle.

    2. Cut out each circle with a sharp pair of scissors.

    3. Then cut out a wavy edge around each circle, like this:


Other tutorials I've seen either keep the circle as it is, or cut slits into the circle, but I found this made a floppier flower than I wanted! The wavy lines gave just the effect I was after.

   4. Light your candle. You may want to have a bowl of water close by! This can be pretty dangerous, so please be careful! If you're a younger reader, please only do this under adult supervision.


   5. Take one circle and hold it a couple of inches above the flame. You'll notice how the edge scrunches up. Turn the circle so the whole edge turns in.

   6. When you've done each circle, put them into 5 piles of each size. If you've chosen different colours, now's the time to arrange them as you wish. I went for purple, purple and then fuchsia on top for each size and purple, fuchsia, lilac for the smallest.

 


   7. Place each group of 3 one on top of the other, largest at the bottom.


   8. When you're happy with the arrangement, take your needle and thread and sew them all together in the middle. You may need a double thread to stop it pulling through.


  9. Then take your bead, button or brooch and sew this into the centre.

  10. Turn the flower over and sew your hairclip onto the back.

  11. Wear it!

I think this is a lovely hair accessory, it's really light to wear and cost less than £5 to make:) The brooch I used is from my late nan's jewellery collection. My brother is getting married on what would have been her 96th birthday, so I'm really pleased I've been able to incorporate something of hers into my outfit.


Have fun making your own organza flower!





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