Copycat "Bloomers" Tutorial!!

The inspiration kit this month contained some gorgeous fabric and felt flowers by Basic Grey "Hello Luscious". I really love the look of these, but don't have anything like them in my stash. I get a kick out of trying to figure out how to recreate embellishments with items I have in my stash, and this was the perfect opportunity! Some people might think it would be easier to just go out and buy them, but I really enjoy a challenge. Here is a simple tutorial on how to make your own fake "Bloomers", and also some tips I learned along the way.

Basic Grey Bloomers:

Start off going through your stash for any felt and fabric you may have that will coordinate with your kit. If you're like me, you have a ton of other craft supplies from various other projects. Some of the supplies you will need are felt (either regular or adhesive backed), fabric, iron on fusible web (Steam a Seam 2 is good because it will not gunk up your needle when you sew on it), iron, sewing machine with different colors of thread, embroidery floss and needle, sharp scissors, buttons, and Cricut or other die cut machine.

Step One: Apply the fusible web to the wrong side of your fabric and/or felt, according to the manufacturer's directions. This will give your fabric a crisp appearance and keep it from stretching out. It also allows you to bond each of the layers of your flowers together nicely. You could skip this step , but I found it really helps the flowers hold their shape with all the handling they will get. The paper backing also provides a perfect surface for tracing a pattern. This step is critical if you are using your Cricut to cut out your fabric.

Step Two: Next, cut out your flowers. You will want to cut your flowers in a variety of shapes and sizes out of both fabric and felt. I discovered a really fun technique when doing research for this tutorial! If you have never used your Cricut to cut out flowers, it is an awesome way to get some great flowers cut very quickly. I watched a few tutorials on Youtube, including this one, which were very helpful. I've heard that it's possible to cut felt with the Cricut, but you will either need a deep blade housing or a multi cut feature, neither of which I have on my original baby bug. I was forced to cut my felt shapes by hand. It is easier to cut them out if you use a template, which you could also make with your Cricut. If you have a big standard die cut machine and flower dies, this would make the job quick and easy. If you are good at sketching, you can sketch out a design for a flower, or do a Google search for printable flower patterns. Cut out some circles in a few sizes, as well. These will be used for centers for your flowers.

Step Three: Stitch along the edges of your flowers and circle centers with a long machine stitch, or embroidery stitching, depending on the look you want. It takes a little patience to stitch around the circular edges. Your efforts will be worth it, I promise!

Step Four: Layer your flowers together in a manner that pleases you. You can experiment to get the look you want.

Step Five: Thread your button, sewing all the layers of your flower together. Voila!! You have made your own copycat "Bloomer" flower! Here are some of the flowers I made, which I just love!! I hope you give this technique a try!