May Flowers

I'm an avid reader of the crafting (and little-bit-of-everything-else) blog Not Martha, and while it provides a steady stream of inspiring tutorials and links, I don't usually feel compelled to make the crafts the author talks about on her blog. That was, until she posted about her design tutorial for making a felt dahlia brooch. The project immediately shot to the top of my to-make list.


The flower itself is cut out of one sheet of felt with all of the little petals glued onto a felt-and-cardboard base. I decided to needlefelt everything together based upon the supplies I had on hand. The tutorial translated very well to needlefelting, but I do have some pointers:

* Cut the round base (to needlefelt your petals onto) to be 2.5 inches across. I skipped the cardboard altogether.
* Roll up the petals and felt them slightly before attaching them to the base. This helps preserve the integrity of the base by not overworking it.
* I still used glue to attach the center part of the flower to the front.
* A backing really helps hide the residual felting fuzz and make the flower look finished. You can either glue the backing on or hand stitch it.


I opted to affix my dahlia to a headband instead of a brooch so that I could wear it in my hair. Since my headband had small teeth along the inside, I simply sewed on the flower using a little embroidery floss and completely skipped the glue.


I'm very glad that I invested the few hours it took to put everything together because I really love the finished object. It will be the perfect thing to wear to a wedding I am attending later this month!