tutorial: rosette brooch

I haven't left the house in three days. Sutton and Ezra are sick. I have been doing lots of laundry (Q: What's better than scrubbing vomit and diarrhea out of clothes and blankets? A: Anything.) while Sutton watches every episode of Dora the Explorer ever made (thank heaven for Netflix Streaming!). Enjoy the tutorial Amigas! :)


Cut several strips of material 2.5" wide.

Sew them together to make one long strip. The longer the strip the larger the rosette.

Press seams open. Fold right sides together.

Click on the picture to see the shape better, it is similar to a knife tip. Draw that on the end of your strip. Start on the FOLDED edge and sew on the curved line.

When you get to the point leave the needle down, raise the presser foot and turn the fabric. Lower the presser foot and sew down the length of your strip of fabric creating a tube.

Trim the seam.

Turn your fabric tube inside out and press. Your fabric tube is just under an inch wide.

Get ready to gather your strip. Use a basting stitch (the longest stitch width) and tension at the highest setting. With the tension set high the strip comes out of the machine gathered, no need to pull threads. Yay!

Very close to the edge (the one with the seam, not the folded edge) sew a gathering stitch down the entire length of the fabric tube.

See? Nice and gathered!

With the tube gathered it curls up on itself. You just have to kind of roll it up.

With a needle and matching thread sew through all the layers. A couple of passes with the needle is all you need, just to hold it together.

As the rosette gets bigger, you can't sew through the entire thing. Sew through the outer layers.

Tuck the end under.

Cut a circle of felt and attach a pin back (I used two because of the size of the rosette).

Grab some craft glue.

It is a little hard to see the glue... I actually had to add a little more, especially around the perimeter.
Press felt onto rosette and let glue set.

Done!

You can make all sizes of rosettes. Mine is about 6" in diameter. My un-gathered fabric tube was about 4 yards long. For a small rosette use 1-2 yards. If you want a deeper, more plush rosette make your fabric strips 4-5" wide.

Here it is on the dress.


Linking up to get your CRAFT on! and We Did it! Wednesday.