Candied flowers for my sweet!

I love jelly rolls and can't wait to see all the quilt projects the Missouri Star Ladies have come up with! Jelly Roll Week officially starts at the MSQC on the 13th!

Until then we will enjoy my little group of collected Jelly Roll projects and today we are making a versatile little jellied flower.

Perfect for little girls hair, a trendy sweater, or as I'll show you today children's clothing embellishments.

Supplies~

Jelly roll strip atleast 20" long

a round marking tool

Take your 2.5" strip and mark on it 5 scallops using your marking tool

Unless you are using a water soluble marking pen I would suggest marking on the back of your fabric. You'll want the rounded edge of your scallops atleast .25" from the top edge of the strip and the points between scallops should meet .75" -1" from the lower edge leaving plenty of room for the gathering stitches and closure.

Next using a highly contrasting thread color free motion stitch along your marked line twice.

don't let this free motion stuff scare you I'll show you a close up of mine

That's my good one, I like the wavy stitching it looks sketched on and cute, below is a bad one. My stitching got a little too wavy :)

You'll want to keep your fabric pretty stretched and taught as you do your free motion stitching. Because it's a single layer of fabric it will cinch up pretty tight if you don't keep it taught. Some cinching is ok as you can see :)

After you've double stitched the petals you'll need to trim off the excess by cutting close to the outer edge along the stitching. Do not cut through the stitching.

Along the straight edge sew a long basting stitch

Gather the flower as tightly as possible without breaking the threads, tie them off, and trim them.

Gather the petals right sides together with the gathered end sticking out the back and whip the end together to tighten the center hole.

Using a button large enough to cover the center raw edge sew down to the flower making sure all the center raw edge is well hidden.

Tie it off in the back.

It's now ready to apply to whatever project you have in mind!

I'm keeping mine mobile at the moment. It's simply pinned inside the pocket of these pants.

But I'd love it attached to a little head band or clip in my girls hair!

Keep in mind that these are not very washer friendly and while the double stitching will help them last they are only a single layer of fabric and are fairly flimsy so if attaching to clothes I would suggest pinning it or lightly tacking so it can be removed for washing. You could attach velcro to the back of the flower and to the article of clothing for a more permanent yet washable plan. Hehe, just brainstorming!