Kanzashi Brooch

Hello there!

How are you doing? I'm doing well, but I kinda feel like this is the calm before the chaos that is the festive season.

I mentioned in my last post that I was getting all laissez-faire about housework and got all crafty up in my own grillz. I showed you this puppy in my a couple of weeks ago.

I thought it was about time I showed you how and what I made.

This is the back. Very profesh! 

First and foremost I got the idea from Kanzashi in Bloom (book website here) by Dianne Gilleland of CraftyPod fame. I really love this book; it's full of fantastic projects, that are pretty and I would actually make.

On to the brooch...I started by folding 6 rounded Kanzashi petals (I could show you how, but there are so many tutes online on how to do them, just Google 'Kanzashi rounded petal') and then trimmed them too.

Taking a loooong piece of knotted thread and a needle I sewed the petals with the needle catching all the foldey layer bits at the bottom.

I like to stack them on to the needle in lots of three. I don't know why, I just do. :)

Pulling the needle through I left a long tail at the beginning

If I only sew one row I find the flower goes a bit flopsy, so I like to sew through the petals again at the top to catch all the top foldy bits. Making sure to leave a lot of loose thread between the bottom and top row of sewing. You don't have to if you don't want to. I'm just a bit insecure about having a flopsy flower :)

Then I snipped the thread between the top and bottom rows.

Taking the long loose tails of thread from each row of sewing; I tied them using a surgeons knot. Making sure not to tie it too tight, just tight enough to bring the bottom of the outside two petals together, but not so tight they squish together (I forgot to take a picture when I had tied the thread...Oops).

I played with the petals to make sure they sat nicely when the petals were folded and when they were spread out like they will be when the brooch is finished.

The next bit you don't have to do at all. I just did it because I found that with the first Kanzashi brooch I made the fabric I used wasn't stiff enough and petals just collapsed back into their folds. So with this brooch I thought that gluing the petals together a bit might stop that from happening.

I dabbed a spot of fabric glue between the petals and hold two petals together for about a minute and a half. Then I did the next petal.

I glued three petals together and then glued the other three together. I held the petals together for a bit and then put them aside to dry.

While the glue was drying I took a deodorant cap and used it to trace a circle on some felt.

This was to be the backing of the flower. So I had to make sure the circle wasn't too big and then I cut it out.

I needed a rectangle of felt to cover the back of the brooch pin back. So I just sized up how wide and how long a piece a needed then snip-snipped the piece I wanted.

I glued the brooch back to the felt circle using some gem glue. Gem glue is the best kind of glue to stick something hard and non-porous to fabric. I put it aside to dry and went back to gluing my flower.

I put a dab of glue between the last two unglued petals and held the petals together for a bit.

While I set the flower aside for a bit for the glue to cure, it's time to finish the brooch back.

Open the brooch back, take the rectangle of felt, glue it over the brooch pin back using fabric glue and set aside.

Once the glue is dry it's time to try on a few buttons! Yippee! It's really interesting how much difference the button makes to the flower.

Too phafy!

Too small and black!

Just right! 

With the button chosen I was just a matter of putting all the bits together.

I started by gluing the felt circle to the back of the flower using a 'generous' amount of fabric glue.

I set the flower aside to give the glue time to dry.

I tried to sew the button on, but I pulled too hard on the thread and it pulled the thread through the fabric of the flower. I didn't want to risk the fabric fraying so I abandoned that idea.

To stop the fabric from fraying I put some fray stopping glue in the centre of the flower and set it aside to dry.

To make it look like the button is sewn on I sewed some thread onto the button.

I put some gem glue on the button and pressed  and held it onto the flower.

And there you have it. A lovely Kanzashi Brooch.

And here is the back.

I gifted this one to my mum. Bit I think they're a great idea for stocking fillers.

And in other news on Friday I drove to my favourite craft store. Here is a pic of my haul.
Loving the bright fat quarters!

That's all folks! Until next time, do something creative that makes you smile.

V xoxo