Silk Poppy Pin Tutorial

I'm sure you've seen these around, but just in case you haven't, here is a quick tutorial on how to make your own poppy flower pin.

You will need some silk fabric, a tea candle, fire, beads, pin, needle and thread.  About a year ago, a local designer was giving away outdated upholstery/drapery fabric sample books on Craigslist.  I called and made a mad dash to her studio. I came home with this:

Over 30 books all neatly kept in a trunk.  I clip and cut as I need from my never ending stash. For this flower I used some silk fabrics that I cut from the sample books.  If you don't have sample fabric books just laying around, don't worry.  I have used skirt lining fabric in the past and the flowers come out gorgeous. Here is a chocolate colored rose made from skirt lining:

Okay, the tutorial...cut out several circles from your fabric. You want to vary the size of the circles.  My largest circle was about 4 inches in diameter while the smallest was about 2 inches in diameter. I cut out several circles all from different samples.

Light the candle and very carefully, lightly singe the edge of the circle.  All you want to do is to prevent the fabric from fraying.  Sometimes, depending on the fabric, the fabric will curl in, and that's okay.

What is not okay is this; these actually caught fire!! So be very careful not to scorch your circles, or your house for that matter.

These turned out nice and rufflely...

Once you have all your circles done, choose which ones you want to use for your flower.  Play around with the position of the circles making sure to layer from the bottom up and from the largest circle to the smallest. Once you got the perfect combination, sew the circles together, sew on the beads and hot glue a pin to the back.

Don't be afraid to play with different color combinations.

And if you are still leery about making your own, you can always win one here.