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On holiday in the Dolomites, during my walks through the meadows in bloom, I was struck by the wild flowers and their bright colours. They are small and simple flowers, often not very fragrant, yet with strong colours, as if they were a call for insects, as if to say that they too are present in this landscape where the peaks and fir and larch woods dominate.
From these enchanting landscapes of the Val Pusteria the idea of ​​this tutorial was born, which has as its subject gods fabric pendants to hang on key rings or to the cursor of a zip applied to a clutch bag, a case, a backpack that you have sewn.
These pendants are formed by small fabric flowers, tulips and daisies with leaves. The measurements of the creative sewing tutorial are the ones I used, but you can indulge yourself with colored fabrics, gaudy combinations, larger or smaller sizes than I used.
The world of fabric flowers, to be sewn by hand or by machine, is vast. There are many combinations and you will find other easy tutorials on the site, to make flowers and pendants in complete autonomy. If you want to learn more about the topic Sew fabric flowers“, here you can find some very useful manual!
Materials
- small rectangles of fabric about 3×4 cm in size;
- hand sewing thread;
- cotton balls;
- colored buttons;
- colored ribbons and cords;
- fabric hoops about 4cm in diameter;
- metal rings if you want to make key rings;
- a sewing machine with basic stitches;
- a pattern to make the leaves of the flowers.
Sew leaves into fabric
To make the leaves I used a very simple pattern, homemade. Trace a line of about 12 cm on a piece of paper. Mark the middle (at 6cm) and draw two parallels about 1cm high (in the drawing I marked 6mm each side). The longer this channel is, the more fabric you will have to tie the two leaves, inserting the ribbon or cord to use to form the pendant inside the knot. Then draw the outlines of the 2 leaves as you see in the picture.
Cut out the pattern obtained and pin it on a piece of fabric folded in two and placed right sides together. Cut the fabric keeping about 0.50 cm from the edge (to form the seam allowance). Machine sew along the edge, but leave a stretch open from which to turn the project right side up. Then hand sew the opening with blind stitch.
Make nicks in the curves before sewing and turning. It will be tough to get a leaf through the narrow junction channel, but not impossible. Arm yourself with holy patience and help yourself with tweezers, the kind used to insert the overlock machine, so to speak.
By hand, with a dark contrasting thread, I sewed the veins of the leaves. I tied a knot in the leaves, taking care to pass the ribbon that was going to make up my pendant through the middle.
Even when making the leaves, you can let your imagination run wild and challenge yourself with different sizes, shapes and knots.
Pendants with fabric tulips
Now we come to the tulips. Take a rectangle of fabric, fold it about 1cm, one long side. On the wrong side, fold the rectangle in half, fasten with a pin and machine sew on the short side as shown in the photos.
With needle and thread sewn in running stitch the unfolded end of the cylinder, leaving two ends of thread long enough to then use to tie a knot, tightening the fabric as seen in the photo. Before this operation, however, thread the cylinder backwards into the ribbon or cord you want to use to make the pendant or key ring.
At this point you can decide to leave the end of the ribbon completely inside the flower or tie a knot and let a few centimeters of flower cord come out like a pistil. In the photos of the tutorial you can see both realizations.
Tighten the thread by making a knot. I also stopped the base of the flower with some hand stitches. Cut the thread and turn the flower corolla right side out. Now fill it with cotton wool.
If you want to leave the end of the string out, place the wadding all the way around, pushing it all the way to the bottom of your flower corolla.
Now, with a few stitches by hand, it is necessary to close the corolla: start from the point where the fabric joins us, from the inside outwards, keeping you on the edge of the corolla. Then rethread from the outside in, coming out the edge of the opposite side. If you have the end of the ribbon sticking out, pass through that as well, to better secure it in the center of the flower. With the needle, go back from the outside to the inside, repeating the operation a couple of times.
From the external point where you are, with the needle, passing from the inside, without passing through the end of the ribbon, take the side edge and repeat the operation described above also for this second part. Fasten the thread inside the flower, making sure that the closing knot is not visible.
That’s it: your tulip-shaped pendant is ready!
Fabric daisies for the pendants and keyrings
To make small fabric daisies to apply to the pendants, you need to draw 5 circles on the back of the fabric about 4cm in diameter for each flower to compose.
Cut out each circle, fold it in half and with running stitch sew the unfolded end. Leave the petal on the wire and proceed in the same way with the other 4 circles. At this point squeeze the petals together and secure the two ends of the thread with a knot.
At this point, to make the heart of the flower, sew a colored button on a piece of felt which you will then cut out following the edge of the button and put it aside. Again from the felt, cut out a slightly larger circle to be used for the back of the flower.
Assemble the daisy: take the button sewn to the felt, place it on the front of the flower, place the ribbon and then the larger felt circle. Glue each layer to each other with hot glue. Since I didn’t have glue at hand, I sewed everything together with a needle and thread.
Your pendant is ready!
Have fun creating different pendants with creative sewing, using leftovers of colored fabrics, ribbons, cords, rat tails, etc., also applying bows if you like them. Remember to always leave a noose to insert in the zip slider or in a metal ring in case you want to create keychains.
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