Quiet Book Page 8: Button Flowers

This was my fastest and easiest page to make. If I get the motivation, I may go back and spruce it up a bit. For now; however, it serves its purpose.

Page 8: Button Flowers

Teaches: Colors, how to do and undo a button

I saw many, many renditions of this page before and after I made it. I initially wanted to label the colors for each flower, but decided I would rather have more flowers instead. After I finished my page, a friend of mine sent an idea for a similar page that I loved, but I had already finished mine, so I didn't change it. I ended up with this: 

Each flower has a coordinating button to go on. 

For this page, I first picked through my button stash to find a button in every color. I then googled flower drawings and found one that I liked. I scaled the web page to the correct size and traced it onto plain white paper. I cut it out and used it as my pattern to cut one flower from each color of felt. I added a slit to the center of each flower and placed them on the page how I liked. Each button was hand sewn onto the page and then the flowers were buttoned on. 

As I mentioned at the top, if I get the motivation, I may spruce it up by adding another flower layer to make the flowers more sturdy. They work for now though, and Owen loves the colors!

~K.A.N.

Re-purposing: women's shirt into girl's dress

This is one of the easiest and most satisfying projects! I love re-purposing! For this project I took a shirt that I had never worn and decided to turn it into a dress for my friend's little girl. (sorry, I forgot to take any before pictures!)

I borrowed a dress that belonged to my friend's daughter and following this tutorial, I made that shirt of mine into a dress for her!

The front: 

Using the extra fabric I added a cute little flower to the front!

The back: 

The first time she tried it on, it didn't fit over her head. That was my mistake because I forgot to account for this fabric having no stretch! I took it back home and added a cut-out with a button and it worked like a charm. 

Isn't she just adorable? 

~K.A.N.

Fabric Flower

Do you need to add an extra something to a project like a blanket or a skirt? Well, a flower might just be that something. I used this flower on a skirt I made for my little sister last Christmas, and it just turned out so cute!

Would you like to make some flowers? 

First, draw a circle and cut it in half to be the pattern for the petals. Use this half circle to cut out the number of petals you want. I did five petals per flower.

Next, fold the half circle in half once more, right sides facing each other, and sew down the straight edge.

Turn this quarter circle inside out. Ironing at this point would probably make the next step easier, but I did not iron. 

The next step is to gather along the arc. Increase your stitch length to the longest it will go and sew along the arc. Leave enough thread length on either side and do not back-stitch. 

Gather along the arc by pulling the top or bottom thread and sliding your fabric along it. You can pull from both sides, just make sure that you are using the same thread at each end (whether it be top or bottom). 

With the arc gathered, tie a knot at both ends using the top and bottom threads to keep the gathering from coming out. Cut the thread. 

Repeat with the number of petals you want for your flower and lay the petals out.

With the petals laid out, choose a fabric for the center and cut out a circle just larger than the one made by the center of the petals. Place the petals on the circle with the gather edge lined up along the outside edge of the circle and sew along the edge. Turning the petals out will then give your finished fabric flower!

~K.A.N.