Bendy Flowers

I have an unplanned tutorial for you today!

Last fall, I made some toys for the children of a friend, and as is often the case, I ended up making something new without intending to. This is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, it's fun to create something I've never made before. On the other, I'm slightly exasperated because it feels manic and extra, and a part of me is motivated to do calm things and be normal now that my own kids have long outgrown the toy phase. Does anyone else feel like this, too, or is it just me trying to figure out how to be a parent of almost-adults?

Anyway, so I made a box of dirt for my friend's children. Not like my original dirt toy, which was a standalone foam thing that we still own, stashed in some closet in the basement, but the easier pool noodle version. This was a mini version of that box of dirt - I had a large shoe box sitting around so I used that. 

Then I had to figure out how to make flowers for the dirt box, and I had a vague idea for the bendy stems, so I made four. Bendy stems, that is. The flower heads themselves eluded me, because I wanted them to look a certain way but my brain was not connecting the dots, so I procrastinated by making random carrots.

For a number of weeks, the box of dirt was packed with carrots and headless flower stems. It was stupidly tragic but I was preoccupied with swim meets and band concerts and other things, so I let them be.

Who knew how long later, I finally made the flowers. 

They're absolutely random, and I literally made them up as I went. I made the generic yellow flower first - I hesitate to call it a sunflower or black-eyed Susan because it's anatomically wrong - and you can tell it was the prototype because the petals are optimistically irregular. 

Then, when I had warmed up a little, I concocted the other three: a giant daisy, 

a rose 

and a poppy.

While I was making them, I decided I would take photos because I could see myself making them again (they're very quick to put together) and, given how unreliable my memory is, would probably appreciate a tutorial for myself if that ever happened. 

So . . . here follows a tutorial for bendy flowers (and carrots)!

First, 

CLICK HERE for a downloadable printable for some templates.

Here's a general materials list for the flowers:

• Batting or thin foam
• Glue that works on fabric
• Some stuffing 
• Fleece for flower heads
• Felt for leaves, calyxes and flower centers
• Green quilting-weight cotton for stems
• Sewing thread in coordinating colors
• Needle for hand-sewing,     and
• Thick (12 gauge) Aluminum wire, like this.

I     THE BENDY STEMS

These are essentially bendy wire wrapped with batting, encased in a tube of fabric. As an overview, here are the completed stems, followed by instructions:

1    Cut the length of wire needed. Use needle-nosed pliers to each end into a short loop so that it won't poke out through the batting and fabric later.  

2    Cut a piece of batting that's about 2" longer than the wire and about 4" wide. Lay the wire on the batting near one long edge and about 1" from the one short end. This will be the lower end of the stem.

3    Apply glue along the wire so that it will stick it the batting. Then begin tightly rolling the batting around the wire. When you get to the other long edge of the batting, apply glue to allow it to stick to the rest of the roll and not come undone. 

4    Cut a strip of green fabric that is 2" longer than the wire, and wide enough that it can wrap tightly around the batting-wrapped wire, plus seam allowance. 
Fold the fabric along its long midline with its RS together. You're going to sew a narrow tube with its bottom end closed. With the sewing machine, I would recommend sewing no more than 4" or 5" of the bottom section of the tube, turning it RS out and hand-stitching the rest. It gets really difficult to stuff the batting-wrapped wire into it otherwise, especially if it's very snugly-fitted.

5    With the sewn tube RS out, fold up the 1" of batting at the end of the wire and stuff that bottom end into the tube. Fold in the SA of the fabric and ladder-stitch the rest of the tube shut around the batting-wrapped wire. When you are about 2/3 up the tube, pause and insert a couple of felt leaves, then stitch them into the tube and continue stitching the tube up to its top end. 

Here is a picture of the top ends of two stems - I left them partially-open to show you the next photo,

in which I'm using pliers to twist the end of the wire into a blunt loop 

so there are no sharp wire ends poking out. This photo shows the top end of the wire, but the same should be done to the bottom end of the wire as well.

Continue stitching up the rest of the tube. The stem is finished and ready for its flower head.

II     DAISY

You'll need three bits of fabric:

• White fleece, about 18" x 4" folded into half lengthwise. Cut slits (about 3/8" or 1/4" wide) along the unfolded edge. This strip of white fringe will be the petals.

• Green felt, about 4" x 4"

Sew the strip of white fringe onto the green felt square, beginning with the outside of the circle and working inward. The strip should be long enough to make two circles, with the inner circle slightly smaller than the first.  

This is the view of the underside of the green square. 

• yellow fleece or felt, about 10" x 1". Fold this along its long midline and baste  their long sides together. Cut slits a little wider than 1/8" along the folded edge.

Stitch the yellow center by hand. Begin on the outside and spiral inward.

The last bit (i.e. the very center) can be fiddly. Rather than continuing to hand stitch to the very end of the yellow strip, stop with about 1" left, and tie and cut off the thread. Start with a new knot, this time from the free end of that last 1" of the yellow strip. Poke the needle down into the very center of the flower, through the green felt visible through the hole. Pull the thread down to tug the end of the yellow strip into the center hollow. 

Now work backward toward the point where you'd tied off the thread earlier, stitching down that last curled section of the yellow fabric.

Trim off the ends of the white petals if any are of irregular length.

The daisy head is completed.

To attach the bendy stem, first make a calyx. Cut two pieces of green felt, each about 4" x 2.5".

Place the top end of a bendy stem on one felt rectangle so that about 1" of the open end of the stem extends beyond the top edge of the felt rectangle. 

Place the second rectangle on top of the first, align all sides and sew through all layers as shown. You'll catch the stem in the seam in the process. 

When you peel those two rectangles apart, they'll form a rough square. The RS of the calyx is shown.  

Trim the square into a star shape.

Place the messy side (WS) of the calyx on the green square of of the daisy head. The top of the bendy stem will be sandwiched between the two layers of green felt. Bend the top of the stem 90 degrees to the side so it lies flat against and centered in the green square. Hand stitch it to the green square. Apply glue to the wrong side of the star- shaped calyx layermand stick it to the green square. 

Trim the green square to match the star-shaped calyx layer.

You can see in the side view that the final calyx is double layered.

This is the completed daisy.

III     BLACK-EYED SUSAN

Decide how many petals you want, double that number, and cut out as many of these yellow petal shapes. Pair them, with RS together, and sew around the curved sides and tops of each pair, leaving the short sides open. 

Turn each pair RS out - these are the petals.

Lay the petals in a ring, with the straight edge of each petal slightly overlapping the next and only a small circular space in the center. Stitch them together as a ring of petals. Use the instructions for the yellow daisy center to make the brown center of the black-eyed susan. Attach a calyx as you would the daisy as well.

IV     ROSE

You'll need a strip of fleece about 20" long, with tapered sides so that one end is 3.5" wide and the other is 2" wide. Fold this along its long midline, with RS together. Sew curves at either end as shown in the photograph.

Trim the SA of the curved ends, turn RS out, and baste the long sides together. You'll have a double-layered strip with one end slightly wider than the other.

Lay 1" of the top end of a bendy stem on the wider end of the strip and hand-stitch the stem to the fleece.

 

Start rolling. 

As you roll, hand-stitch the basted edge of the fabric around itself and to the stem.

Don't make the roll too tight, so that it's a vertical cylinder, but flare out the folded edge of the fleece like a real rose bud.

Complete the roll. 

This is what the bottom of the rose head looks like.

Cut a piece of green felt into the shape of a calyx. Make a small hole in the center and insert the lower end of the stem through it. Slide it upward to the bottom of the rose head. Apply glue and stick the calyx to the base of the rose head.

V     POPPY

You'll need 

• Red fleece: Cut 3 to 4 irregular circles, in increasing diameters of about 3" to 5".

• Black fleece: A 2" circle and a strip 6" x 2". In the photo below, the strip is shown folded along its long midline and cut into a fringe along its folded edge.

Begin with the black felt circle. Sew running stitch close to the edge, then pull the thread to gather the circle into a ball. 

Lightly stuff the ball. Insert the top end of a bendy stem into the opening, gather the opening tightly around the stem, and hand-stitch the opening of the ball shut around the stem.

If you haven't yet done so, fold the 6" x 2" black fleece strip along its long midline, baste the long sides together and cut slits 1/8" apart along the folded side. Begin at one end of the frilled strip and hand-stitch it around the base of the ball, wrapping it around underlying layers.

Continue stitching to attach the entire length of the frilled strip to the ball.

Cut a cross-shaped opening in the center of the smallest red circle

and slide the stem through it.

Stitch the edges of the opening to the stem. Try to shape the red fabric so that it sits as a shallow wavy funnel rather than a flat circle. This will help it stay distinct from the adjacent layers of petals.

Continue adding the remaining red circles in increasing order of size. To make it more realistic-looking, I've gathered the fabric of some layers together, or folded the fabric over itself, to introduce waves. I've also trimmed the edges of the petals to make the wavy edges more pronounced.

The calyx is made in the same way as the rose's, except shaped differently.

VI    CARROT

You'll need

• Orange flannel or cotton, cut according to the template.
• Green felt, 4.5" x 3"

With RS together, sew the carrot as a narrow cone with its top edge open. Turn RS out and stuff. Hand-sew running-stitch around the opening and pull the thread to gather the opening loosely shut. Set aside briefly while you prepare the green topper.

Cut slits 1/2" apart and about 2.5" long, parallel to the 3" side of the green felt rectangle. This means you are cutting into one of the 4.5" sides. Now roll the rectangle so that you get a tight roll 3" long. One end of the roll will have strips of fabric splayed open; the other end will be an uncut 1" portion. Insert part of this uncut portion into the opening of the carrot and continue gathering the stitches tightly around the green felt. Knot to secure the opening shut around the green felt and stitch through the felt to secure the carrot topper inside the opening.

Here's a bunch of completed carrots sitting in the dirt. One of the carrots in the picture looks different than the rest because it was an early prototype, It was an easy decision to discard it as it was both fiddlier to make, and not as cute.