A Beautiful Flower Party for Ella

My baby just turned 3!  Yay!  Boo!  I'm so happy to see her getting bigger and smarter everyday, but at the same time, I'm sad that I no longer have a baby.  Three is a fun age though, and she's already potty trained, so I think I'll keep her!

Anyway, my lovely daughter requested that she have A Beautiful Flower Party. What can I say?  She loves flowers and finds them all to be beautiful.  So, what could I do to make her happy--make a garden of beautiful felt fabric flowers!

If you read my blog, then you already know that I recently posted a quick tutorial on how to make felt fabric flowers.  They are super fun and easy to make.  Just be careful with the hot glue gun!

We decided to travel "back home" where my husband and I grew up to visit family and to have Ella's 3rd birthday party.  Lots of people came to celebrate the big day for Ella and to enjoy the delicious BBQ and fixins we supplied for lunch.  After the meal, my sister-in-law helped me put together the "cake" so the birthday girl could get to the important stuff--opening presents!

Ella is not a big cake eater, so she really didn't care what kind she had (I thought).  Since she wanted a flower party, I decided to make some yummy Mississippi Mud Cake (my mom's famous recipe) which sort of looks like dirt, hence the name Mud Cake.  At the last minute, out of no where, Ella asks for pink cake!  Well, dirt is not pink, but I decided to throw some in the mix just the same.  I attempted to make some individual bunt size strawberry cakes, but they stuck to the pan and just crumbled.

My original idea had been to use the small green flower pots to put all the cake in, but after washing them several times, they still had a plastic odor. So, we put some crumbled strawberry cake in the bottom of the birthday cups instead, then added a dollop of cool whip, threw in a few gummy worms, and placed a piece of Mississippi Mud Cake on top!  And to finish it off, I decorated each pot with one of the beautiful flowers I made of felt.  I simply left a small opening in the felt circle that covers the back and then slid a new pencil (eraser side) into that little pocket it created.  The pencils worked out great since some of the flowers were a little heavy.  The flowers make great little take home gifts for the guests, too.

And there you have it!  A crazy dirt cake flower garden!

Ella loved everyone singing Happy Birthday to her and then getting to blow out the candle.  She even asked my sister-in-law to "make fire" at least three times, and once she insisted we sing to her again! So sweet!

Does anyone recognize the dress?  Well, Ella finally was allowed to wear it!  I made it a couple of months ago from a pattern I won.  You can read all about it here.  The fit was perfect, but since it was still a little chilly, she wore under the dress this white shirt with flouncy sleeve cuffs.  Oh, and I almost forgot, I turned one of the felt flowers into a barrette for Ella's hair.  It perfectly matches the flowers on her dress!  Two other small flowers were turned into pins.  I wore one.

This is the best picture of me taken at the party--seriously.  See my adorable son in the background shoveling gummy worms into his mouth?  He found the ones we didn't use in the cake and ate them all before I knew it!  I love him!

He was a very good big brother and helped Ella open her presents.  I think he was as excited about her surprises as she was!

I didn't do much with decorating for this party except hang up a few flower themed items that I bought at Dollar Tree.  I guess party decorating is just not my forte.  But the most important thing is that Ella loved it, and I know she did!  Happy birthday to my big girl!

Oh, and this is what happens when you play and party hard all day and night!

Felt Fabric Flower Tutorial

Now say that three times fast!  Whew!

I've got a quick tutorial for your today on how to make fabric flowers from felt.  You know, the cheap craft felt sheets you buy.  These are super simple and so fun to make.

I know you've seen these a lot out there in cyberspace, but I haven't seen any quite like mine.  My quick tutorial will show you how to make a large felt fabric flower that looks a lot like a zinnia or maybe a dahlia. I've got some you can see in the final pictures that look like daisies, too. Ok, so here we go!

Step 1:  Cut the strips for your Flower Center and Flower Petals out of the craft felt fabric sheets or if you want to go a more expensive route, use wool felt.

The dimensions shown above are for making a large flower, but you can vary the width of each piece however you want to make up all kinds and sizes of flowers.  I also used a 1" to 1.5" wide piece for the Flower Center and 1.5" to 2.5" for the Flower Petals on a lot of small or medium flowers.  Just play around with it and see what you come up with, too!

Step 2:  Glue the strips.

Step 3:  Cut the petals into the strips.

Step 4:  Cut the Flower Center.

Step 5:  Roll and glue the Flower Center.

Step 6:  Add the Flower Petals and keep rolling and gluing.  We're almost done!

Step 7:  Glue a felt circle to the back to cover up any glue that oozed out from the rolling (this part is optional but makes the overall flower look much neater).  Also at this point, you can glue a barrette or pin to the back in you want to wear it.

Voila!  A Felt Fabric Flower! 

I'll show you very soon why I made all these Beautiful Flowers (hint, hint)! Aren't they sewVery pretty!?

See how you can vary the center of the flower?  You can use different colors or you can omit the step where you cut the center and simply just roll and glue it up.

Have fun making flowers and have a great day!

This tutorial was featured on March 30th, 2012 at Sew Can She.  Please check out their blog and sign up for their daily tutorial emails!


UPDATE: This tutorial and all photos are property of sewVery and are NOT to be reproduced, rephrased, or copied and reposted on your blog!  As with all other content and photos on my blog, it belongs to me (Veronica) and you may not use it on any other blog or social media without my express written consent!  If you wish to share my idea, please contact me at sewvery(at)gmail(dot)com for permission.  

One of My Favorite Patterns

A few months back, I picked up this Chelsea Andersen pattern (M6062) put out by McCall's.  I had just started sewing again and wanted an easy peasant style shirt/dress pattern to make my daughter something cute. First of all, the two little girls on the cover are adorable, and the fabrics I thought were so cute in pink and green.

And although it doesn't have Easy written on the front of the pattern, it really is easy to make.  As you can image, there are no complicated steps required to put together a peasant top or dress, but for someone new to sewing, this pattern clearly outlines what you need to do.  Very simple instructions to follow.  Love it!

Since it was approaching fall, I decided to make my dear daughter top A in cotton quilting fabric I had picked up at Joann's. I had a remnant in the perfect teal green corduroy to match the top, so I whipped up some pants, too.  I think I didn't have quite enough of the corduroy to do two rows of ruffles on the pants, so I just opted for one.  I also extended the sleeve length a few inches to be a 3/4 length.

And I had been wanting to learn how to make a fabric flower, so I searched online for some tutorials.  Of course I came across a ton, and now I don't even remember which ones I used, but I made a couple of fabric flowers--one I turned into a big barrette and the other a pin to attach to the top or a purse.

Here is the fabric flower pin.  Sometimes she wears it on the waistband on the side or the middle, but most often she doesn't wear it.  I still think it is cute.  I had thought she could also pin it to this cute brown corduroy purse I made her, but she hasn't let me do that yet.

 

To date, of all the outfits I have made for Ella, this is the one that I favor most.  Apparently, so does everyone else!  Whenever she wears this, people go out of their way to stop us and tell us how pretty she looks or how cute her outfit is.  That is such a good feeling.  I can't believe I haven't made any pictures of her wearing it though!  Ugh!

Because this first attempt at McCall's Pattern M6062 was such a success, I decided to make Ella's Christmas nightgown from the same top but with some modifications. First of all, I went with a full length sleeve, then I left of the elastic waistband, and I made the overall top longer so it would be more like a dress.  This is the best picture of her in it that I could find.  She had just woken up Christmas morning!

Again, this pattern produced a winner!  She loved the gown, which I made using some vintage holiday themed fabric from my mom's stash.  I even had enough to make Ella a matching pillowcase.

Even though it is way past Christmas, she still likes wearing the gown and using the pillowcase!

Around the same time I made the Christmas gown, I purchased some designer fabrics from a local store.  I thought they were so cute.  Owls seem to be so popular right now, and the light blue color was a nice departure from the mostly pink/purple wardrobe Ella has.  I made another outfit--top and pants--just like the first very popular outfit, but to my disappointment, Ella is not as fond of the fabric as I am.  She has worn it maybe three times since I made it, and it always takes some coaxing on my part to get her into it.  Oh, well.

I even matched up the plaids!   I can't understand why she doesn't like it! Aren't owls cute?

And finally, I made her another nightgown like the Christmas one.  In fact, it was the very first thing I ever blogged about here.  The Valentine gown.  The fabric is so fun and playful, and of course, pink!  She loves this gown and wears it often.  

So, if you are in the market for a great peasant top/gown/dress pattern, I highly recommend the McCall's M6062 by Chelsea Andersen.  I've yet to make Dress B on the pattern, but that is on my to do list for this spring.  I have a feeling Ella is going to love it, too.

Happy Wednesday everyone!