Flower Bow

So last night my sister emailed me with a picture of this cute toddler flower bow she found. BUT she didn’t want to buy it if she could make it. So she asked if I, being the Origami QUEEN, could figure out how it was made. Now I have a to do list longer than my husbands monkey arms (his arms are longer then his height, unusual I think) for the party. BUT she piqued my interest. SO I started working on it… It was fun and I spent WAY to long on it, BUT I figured it out! What do you think?  I took a sheet of paper and kept folding it until I got all the folds the picture of the flower clip had.  Then I cut off the excess paper.  Then unfolded it to find a… square!  yup each petal is made from a square of fabric.  I used 4 inch squares for this clip, but think I’ll try a 3 inch square for one for Little S.

Sorry for the bad picture quality, this is the bathroom mirror and there is NO natural light in that room.   But I thought a picture would help with the size.  I love having short hair, but don’t usually find anything I can wear in my hair.  These were perfect!  I’m LOVING them SOMEDAY I’ll get someone else to take a picture I like. But for now, here they are (and my new hairdo~!) I have a photographer girlfriend who I’m GOING to get together with someday and get new headshots!

The sewing was actually easy.  But showing you how to fold it is a bit harder.  I’ll TRY… Here it goes.

Okay start with a square of fabric.  I was trying different fabric options when I made this.  I took pictures of the Jersey, but it didn’t work out right.  I want something thicker than the cotton, but not as heavy as the jersey, any suggestions?  Okay, I used a 5 in square for these pictures, but 4 inches for the ones in my hair and will use 3 inch’s for the one for my toddler.

First step…  Fold it over with the right sides out, super easy!

Then fold it in half again, pin the raw edges and sew up the line

Doesn’t that look nice?  Now were going to OPEN up the triangle.
This part is hard to explain, but the open side is going to open into a triangle and the folded side is going to meet up with the sewn edge. you want the invisible green lines to match up!

It should look like an elongated kite.  The raw edges underneath.  Next we’re going to take the top raw edge/point and fold it backwards pulling it down until it meets the bottom raw edge/point.

It should look like this with the raw edges touching in the middle of all the other layers.  Now we’re going to fold up the outer sides and this will create our petal look.

Voila!  Last fold the edges in as much as you can down at the point, sew it together and your done!   Make 7 of these putting them together to create  a flower.  Use a button on the top to cover the nasty point/edge and add to whatever you’d like,  barrette, clip, headband etc…!

I used jersey, cotton, and denim. the jersey is OUT, the other two are okay. The thicker denim is nicer than the cotton hancerchief but I’m not completely sold on either.  The search in on for the right material for this project!  Let me know what you think, and if you make one (or make it BETTER) I’d love to see it!