How to make a Millinery flower
This week we're taking the standard millinery flower and using it on an old hat that needs revamping. You could use these flowers as brooches, string them together for a necklace or use them as embellishment on an old top or jumper.
First you need to start off with about a metre of petersham - the wider stuff works better because it's a bit less fiddly. What you're going to do is make a series of folds, stitching as you go along.
Below is a useful diagram to show you - basically you fold the petersham up in about 1-1.5cm folds.
Each time you do this you will need to shift the fold over to the left slightly from the previous one. This gives you a sort of step pattern on the left hand side and a triangular pattern on the right.
After each fold you need to stitch through to hold it in place (see photos below for tips on how to do this)
So you'll come through the back of each fold.
Once you have done all of these folds you then need to stitch up the other side in order to create the flower shape. Do this as below - once you have stitched through all folds you then pull your thread tightly and the petersham should curl into a circular shape - keep pulling until you have reached your desired flower look.
You can see the first lot of stitches near the top of the photo - again you thread the stitches through the inside of each fold.
Here's the flower mid-pull! It's really beginning to take shape. Once you are happy with your flower then secure your thread and you're done!
You may want to add a button or something to the middle, or you can leave it as is if you like the effect it gives.
We added buttons to ours and stitched them onto our hat.
So there you go! Good luck and, as always, let us know how you get on!
