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Saturday, June 9, 2012

Flower circlets


Flower circlets are a very effective headpiece and relatively easy to make. Variations of these headpieces can be used for Nutcracker's Waltz of the flowers, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty but also for a bride or brides' maids.
How to make these circlets is described in detail in Claudia Folts book Finishing touches, so I cannot "share" those instructions here but I can describe some of how I made the circlets.
Materials for flower circlets
For my project, I choose pale pink silk flowers and leaves, some of which I dyed pale blue and pale lilac with RIT dye, to match the costumes I was making. I also had some artificial spring flowers (apple blossoms) in pale yellow and peach pink, which I used as is.
Most artificial flowers sold at craft stores such as Michaels, A.C. Moore and Jo-Annes are made of a polyester based fabric, which cannot be dyed with RIT or Dylon dyes. Polyester requires a special dye which is more difficult to use for the average non-professional user. You can use Design Master spray paint to color these types of artificial flowers.
I started by making a wire circlet and then covered it with strips of fabric. I used scraps of tulle because tulle does not ravel but ribbon, or bias cut strips of other fabric can be used.
Flower circlets wrapped with tulle and some flowers added
The flowers were sewn to the circlet using some milliners thread and then glued with Fabrictac (tm) glue.
loops for pinning
I also sewed on some millinery elastic loops to the circlets to make it even easier to pin the circlet to the head. The circlets are fairly flexible, so they can be pined without the loops but this way it is easier to do so invisibly.
Completed flower circlet
To finish the circlets and give them some sparkle, I added 4 mm hot fix Swarovski crystals in pastel shades to some of the centers and flower petals.

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