A Ten Minute Felt Chrysanthemum Made From A Strip
The Jewish holiday of Shavuous, (in which, among other traditions, we decorate our homes with flowers and greenery to celebrate the receiving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai) is tomorrow night, so with the idea of some really large felt flower napkin rings for our holiday table in mind, yet not a lot of time, I knew I needed a felt flower that would be quick to make and great looking! A quick felt flower is without a doubt one made by rolling a strip of felt, yet that are many variations on the technique with quite different looking results. (I've made felt rose buds, way back when, another flower type to combine with this one, if you like!)
The felt chrysanthemum made from one long strip of fringed loops came to mind, and after a bit of experimenting I was sold. In fact so much so that I used up almost all of a large bag of felt scraps and yardage that had been hanging out for way too many years, yippee! (Note: I do have a large blister on my middle finger from the scissors and all that cutting, such is the price……it nicely compliments the hot glue gun blister on my ring finger!)
I ended up settling on using grey felt for the napkin ring flowers, as that will look the best on my white table with lots of cobalt blue Moroccan dishes, the ones made with pink and yellow and blue ended up being used for a really cute felt flower decoration for the front door, which I will be sharing shortly.
Want to make some of these fun felt chrysanthemums too? If you've got ten minutes or so and felt and hot glue on hand, then lets get started!
You'll Need:
- felt, strips or yardage, crafting squares are not long enough though could be glued together
- hot glue
- t-shirt yarn in a second color (or just about anything like fabric, yarn, etc.)
- sharp scissors
How To:
- For large flowers 4-5" wide, I cut strips that measure 4" x 40". for much smaller flowers (not shown here) I cut strips that measure 2" x 28"
- Fold strip in half lengthwise and secure with hot glue, such that you now have a long folded strip that is 2" wide.
- Now cut fringe down the length of your strip, with cuts roughly 1/4" to 1/3" apart. Cuts are made into the folded edge to form loops, and should be made about 1 1/2" long, leaving a border which holds all the loopy fringe together.
- Using hot glue to secure flower as you roll, start rolling up strip on itself to form flower. Now this is where you can experiment. If you wrap the strip exactly onto itself like a roll of tape, you'll get a flatter flower, which is what I was going for because I'll be using mine as napkin rings. if you want a more rounded flower, you wrap and slowy more the strip down a bit so it isn't sitting directly on top of the previous row. This technique requires much more secure glueing though, so do be aware of that. The end result will look like a concave spiral from the back.
- To make turqoise center as seen here (optional) wrap some t-shirt yarn around your finger 4-6 times, remove and secure by wrapping end around bunch. You can really do this any way you like, but mine looks like a tiny little skein of rope. I then cut down the little skein to the preferred height (leaving the loops on the top) and then affixed the t-shirt yarn skein into the very center of the flower using hot glue.
- To use flower as a napkin ring secure a length of ribbon or t-shirt yarn to the back of the flower with hot glue. Cut a little circle of felt to cover the back of the flower, and glue it on, thus securing the ribbon and making a nice finish.
- Enjoy!
