A very belated Happy New Year! I didn't intend on taking quite such a long blogging break, but December passed in a whirl of packing lots of parcels full of loveliness, end of term school activities, Poppy's Birthday Party, last minute present making (of which I mostly forgot to photograph before gifting) and then of course Christmas itself and all that it entails. January was upon me before I knew it and in between packing even more parcels full of loveliness (thank you, you are keeping Mum and I so very busy!), a 7 year old very reluctant to go to sleep at a decent hour and then finding myself a little under the weather with an ear infection, I'm afraid my poor little blog was indeed neglected and even worse I'm afraid my blog reading has been virtually non existent...so sorry!
I have managed a little sewing and crochet, which, if you've been following me on Instagram and Facebook you will have seen the little snippets I've been sharing. My main objective for 2015 is to get some of my 'works in progress' finished......I have plan, but more of that another day!
So anyway I digress, as I mentioned it was Poppy's 7th Birthday just before Christmas and as is my little tradition I made her a Birthday Rosette......
I think it's no secret, that I like to make these................
round rosettes, flower rosettes, birthday rosettes, Christmas rosettes..... in my world there's a rosette for any occasion!
Having received various emails asking for some tips on rosette making, I thought I would share a little happy tutorial to make a heart themed rosette.
You will need
Fabric scraps in two designs (
WoolFelt® in three colours
One brooch pin
A selection of buttons, ribbons and lace
Sewing thread
Bondaweb
Needle, scissors, paper and a compass
The first thing you will need to do make some paper templates using your compass. (Alternatively draw round some circular objects). My circular templates measured 9cm, 8cm,7cm, 6cm and 5 1/2cm in diameter.
IMPORTANT, the fabric will need to have Bondaweb adhered to it prior to cutting. You can find out how to do this HERE.
Cut the following:
Felt A (Duck Egg) cut out two 9cm circles and one 6cm circle.
Felt B (White) cut out one 7cm circle
Fabric A cut one 8cm circle
Fabric B cut one 5 1/2cm circle
Felt C cut one heart
A little happy tip.....for little hearts like the one used here, I find it easiest to freehand cut. to do this start with a square of felt aprox 4cm high/wide, fold this in half and then with the fold line being the centre line of your heart cut out half a heart shape. Unfold and you will have a perfectly symmetrical heart. You can always use this method to create a paper template first.
From your pretty selection of ribbons and lace, cut several pieces 18cm in length and three 7cm pieces. The OCD in me likes the ribbons to be symmetrical, but go with what you like!
Lets get started....... I forgot to mention that I generally sew all my rosettes by hand, but you can of course sew yours by machine in you prefer.
Firstly, adhere the 8cm fabric circle to the a 9cm felt circle and the 5 1/2cm fabric circle to the 6cm felt circle.
Take one of your shorter (7cm) lengths of ribbon, fold in half and stitch to the back of the 9cm felt circle that has the fabric adhered to it. Make sure your stitches are aprox 1cm away from the outer edge of the circle as shown below.
Repeat for the other two shorter lengths of ribbon. Don't worry if you're stitches are not terribly neat, you'll soon be covering them up with another layer of felt!
Now you're going to stitch the ribbon tails to the bottom of the Rosette. I find it easiest to start in the middle and work outwards......take care if you are using one sided ribbons eg velvet..... we won't talk about the the time is sewed one on backwards.......
Once you sewn all your ribbons in place, put this part of the rosette to one side for the time being.
Using running stitch and the perimeter of the fabric circle as a guide, stitch the 6cm circle to the 7cm circle. I positioned mine slightly off centre.
On top of this stitch your felt heart, again I positioned my heart off centre and this time I used blanket stitch for a little variety, you could of course use running stitch or back stitch or whatever stitch takes your fancy. You can find some easy embroidery stitch tutorials HERE.
Now stitch this set of circles to the ribbon embellished circle, again use the perimeter of the white felt circle as a guide.
Add some pretty buttons as many as you would like. The rosette front is now completed......you're nearly there!
Sew the brooch pin to the centre of the remaining felt 9cm circle.
You're now going to stitch all the layers together. Place your rosette front, right side facing down and place the rosette back piece on top, brooch pin facing upwards.
Stitch all the layers together using the perimeter of the dotty fabric circle as a guide.
Finally trim the ribbon tails to a length that you find pleasing.
That's it your little happy rosette is completed!
Pin it on your favourite cardi and wear with a smile!
I hope that you enjoyed the tutorial and if you use it to make your own version, please to send me some pictures, I would love to see. Alternatively, if you share them on Instagram of Facebook, tag me or use the hastag:
#alittlehappytutorial
so that I can take a peek!
Have a lovely weekend and back soon!
