Puffy Blooms Tutorial

I saw these over a year ago, and can't for the life of me remember where, but I took the idea and ran with it [but never with my scissors in my hand].  It's one of those projects you can slip in your purse and work on a few blooms here and there, doctor's office, car line, watching project runway....You know how I love portable projects.

Supplies:

1  Trace your circle on the backside of your fabric.  This is your stitching line, so cut your circle slightly larger, 1/4'' or so.  *Stitching hint: push your "needle down" button, so you can rotate your fabric frequently without it getting out of place.

2  Pull the layers apart and make a single slit on one side in the center, so it now looks like pac-man's mouth, long enough for you to turn the circle inside out.  Push out edges with bone folder or tip of a pen lid.

3  Stuff circle generously and stitch back slit shut. [don't say that 10 times fast]

4  Make a knot in embroidery thread, and come up in the very center of your circle.  Take your thread around to the back again, and come up in the center again, pulling to create your first indentation.

5  It's easiest to make the opposite indentation next, so you have a straight line across the circle.  

6  Fill in with desired number of equally spaced indentations

Leave as is or decorate center with seed beads or button.  The bloom on the left was made with a 1 1/2'' diameter circle and the one on the right just 1'' diameter.

As I was going through the kids' clothes earlier this week, I admitted [the first step, right?] my incessant need to have sweaters for them.  SO many sweaters.  I thought I'd spruce one up for little Clover with some Black-eyed Susans.  I took the buttons off and switched them to the inside of the sweater and attached the Black-eyed Susans to the front so it can still be buttoned up.

As long as you stitch the back slit up well, these are machine washable.

On the Black-eyed Susan Blooms I just used a single strand of the embroidery thread for a more delicate petal delineation.

I am in love with matte seed beads

Clover is in love with pockets

For Puffy Hair Blooms, just slip a bobby pin through the embroidery thread on the back.

Go! and create a profusion of Puffy Blooms!