Weddingbee Blog

image via Hanssie Trainor

I’ve gotten so many questions about my hair flower that I thought I would share its story with the hive. I made several trial run hair pieces before finally making one for my wedding day. At first, I thought I would use a faux flower but it didn’t have the fluffy look I really wanted. So, I switched to fabric. I made it using our guru Martha Stewart’s fabric peony template! Who says you can’t have peonies in late summer?

image via Hanssie Trainor

To get my biggie peony, use the template labeled “various peony petal sizes template.” Using various sizes gives you that graduated petal look. First, I tried it using gold satin I had laying around.

The satin worked well as a brooch that would sit flat. It didn’t have enough fluff for my hair, so I switched to chiffon.

Materials

• Chiffon cut into squares for each petal size
• Tulle cut into squares for each petal size
• thread
• needle
• Martha Stewart template, printed out
• Felt
• Hair Clip

Directions

1. Print out the template (okay to use scrap paper, as I did). Roughly cut out the template petal. Pin each petal to a stack of chiffon. I found that I could cut about 5-8 layers of chiffon in one stack.

2. Carefully cut out the pattern. Repeat this step for every size petal you want. I did two stacks of each petal size to start. Note that you may need to go back and cut out more petals if you are not getting the desired fluff volume.

3. You can layer the chiffon however you would like. You could layer them on top of each other as seen in the above gold satin flower. I found that the flower held together better if you fold each petal into fourths and sew 4 together for each layer.

4. Between each layer of chiffon, put one layer of tulle. I found that the tulle gave the flower the structure it needed to “stand up”. Once you have all the layers you want, flip the flower over and make sure to sew through all the layers.

5. For me, the flower still wouldn’t “stand up” the way I wanted. I folded the entire flower into fourths, pinched all the layers together to get the flower to “stand” up like a real flower, then I sewed the “pinch” together.

6. Using your largest petal template, cut out the felt to match. Sew your chiffon flower to the felt. Attach hair clip of your choice. Pictured here is a hair comb. I found out at my trial that the hair comb doesn’t work well with a birdcage and my hairstyle.

This type of clip worked a lot better.

image via Thai Craft

Note: I had to re-make this flower 3 times to get it to look the way it ultimately did. If it isn’t looking the way you want, keep adding more layers of chiffon and tulle. Then, pinch more and more of the layers together in the back. The bigger you want the flower to be, the more difficult it is to get the chiffon to “stand.” Here’s some evidence:

It looked like a sad flower, didn’t it? It wasn’t even worth a slight smile. This next picture, on the other hand, brings out the gummy smile and all!

image via Hanssie Trainor

If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. You’ll get there. If I could, you certainly can. If you need more photos to help guide you and other tutorials, here are some links to help you from Mrs Pretzel, Mrs Mascara, Mrs Lace, Mrs Sew, Mrs Pineapple, Mrs Stripes, Mrs Buttons, Mrs Hot Dog, Mrs Cheeseburger, Mrs Oyster, and Mrs Poodle!