There are a mind-boggling number of tutorials out there on how to make fabric flowers. I made these recently using a pair of tutorials at Mary Janes & Galoshes, but there are dozens more I’d like to try at Oopsey Daisy. Here are my two cents, in the form of two tips:

1) Many of the tutorials that involve synthetic fabric call for using a candle flame to heat seal the edges. I found another easy and potentially safer method: an embossing heat gun. I bought a heat gun probably 15 years ago when my sister and I used to make stamped and embossed Christmas cards. (You use the heat gun to melt the embossing powder.) I’ve saved it all these years, and now I’m glad I did! I placed the flower petals on a large tile, held down one edge and waved the heat gun over the edges until they started to curl a bit. I was using rather large petals so wasn’t in danger of burning my fingers, but with smaller petals you could always use a chopstick or something to hold the flower in place.

2) I was telling my sister about these flowers and suggesting we make some as gifts for her daughter and other little girls we know. When I suggested adding a pin back to the flowers that could also be pinned to  a  hair band she said, “That would look cute until someone fell and then got a pin stuck in their head.” Now, I think you’d have to fall pretty hard and in just such a way to have the pin open and then stab you in the head, but just to be on the safe side, I came up with an alternative.

I cut a circle of felt and a small strip slightly narrower than the width of the pin back. I sewed one end of the strip to the circle, and added a tiny bit of Velcro to both the strip and the circle. (It is a little tricky to sew Velcro to such a small piece of fabric. This would be a good project for the iron-on Velcro.)

That way, the pin can be slipped under the strip of felt, or a hairband. At this point, I admit it did seem like a lot of work just to guard against the very slight chance of injury. Then I realized that by doing it this way, I could also slip the flower on a headband, which would not have been possible with just the pin back. (Not that I would ever wear a huge flower on the side of my  head, but I would LIKE to be the kind of person who could pull that off. But little girls can get away with that, right?)

(Edited to add: As my clever commenter Katherine points out below, it would be easier to just sew both ends of the felt strip to the circle, making a little loop that could be slipped over the pin or headband, and the hair band could be looped through there as well. Or a bit of elastic, which would be sturdier than a strip of felt. Or forget the extra piece and just make two slits in the felt? Sometimes I make things more complicated than they need to be!)

The fall foliage here in New Hampshire  is spectacular. I hate that it comes and goes so quickly, though, so this year I’ve been expermenting with preserving leaves. It has not been a particularly satisfying experience! Here’s a rundown of techniques I tried:

• ironing leaves between sheets of waxed paper, which was supposed to leave them coated with wax. Didn’t work at all.
• coating dried leaves with Mod-Podge. I saw this technique at Gingerbreadsnowflakes but was put off by the directions to let the leaves dry for a few weeks. Who is that patient? I read somewhere else that you could speed-up that process by ironing the leaves, but I found that really darkened and dulled the colors. But, my leaves seemed plenty dry after only a few days, so I tried this again with a new batch of leaves. The Mod-Podge worked well, but it was time consuming because it takes quite a while to dry beteween coats.
• Dipping leaves in wax. I didn’t actually try this technique because I couldn’t find any wax. All the tutorials I saw called for paraffin, the type used to seal canning jars, but my grocery store didn’t carry it, nor did Target or Wal-mart. Then I found some references to using beeswax, which looked beautiful, but again, I couldn’t find it. Michael’s had some, but it was something like $17 a pound. At that point, I was starting to feel like Beth at Remarkably Domestic, who has been working her way through Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Crafts and describes the “fruitless shopping” involved in many of the projects.

So,  I ended up with a rather pitful little garland of about a dozen leaves.

They are pretty, but I’m also quite fond of the newspaper leaves my son and I painted together (got that idea from Maya*Made). Especially when he said to me, “I like these nights when it’s dark and we can do stuff together, Mommy.”

I made my sister a tote bag as part of her birthday present and since the pattern had no pockets, I made this purse organizer/insert to go with it. The idea is that you could easily switch from one purse or bag to another by removing the insert. I found the tutorial at the Fredericton Quilters’ Guild site (UPDATE: The pattern seems to have disappeared) and found it fairly easy to make except for the binding around the edges. It was really tricky to sew the binding around the U-shaped sides, and I cut my binding too narrow and had to really work to get it on there. I also think the slots for the credit cards are far too shallow. I followed the directions exactly, but I had a lot of fabric left over after folding it as specified, so perhaps there was a typo in the directions. If I make this again (maybe for myself!) I will make the slots deeper. It’s a little hard to tell from the pictures, but there are outside pockets with elastic edges and a long zippered pouch that sort of acts like a divider in the interior. The pattern doesn’t call for it, but I added a few loops of elastic on the side to hold pens or lipstick. I also forgot to add the little loops of twill tape for pulling the organizer out of a purse, but I think she’ll be able to figure that out without them.

Also, here’s a glimpse of my entry for this week’s “A Gift a Week ‘Til Christmas” challenge at Works in Progress. As usual, I’m posting it on my “hidden” blog so the recipient won’t see. Leave me a comment or send me an e-mail if you don’t have the address.

Even though I don’t have a little girl, and even though I don’t like the taste of candy corn, I am oddly drawn to all the cute candy corn crafts out there this time of year. Woman’s Day Magazine (which also has a huge spread on my husband’s cookbook this month!) had a bunch of decorating projects involving candy corn … though I know I lack the patience to glue individual candies to a wreath,etc. These cute little candy cane barrettes are MUCH quicker. I used this great tutorial by Katherine at One Inch World. Her technique for partially sewing the pieces together for the top of the cover and then sewing them to backing piece really streamlined things. So these little guys will be for my niece, who is generally the recipient of all the cute girly projects I try.

Here’s a glimpse of my entry for this week’s “A Gift a Week ‘Til Christmas” challenge at Works in Progress. As usual, I’m posting it on my “hidden” blog so the recipient won’t see. Leave me a comment or send me an e-mail if you don’t have the address.

We visited the USS Intrepid Museum in New York in August, and since then, my son has been obsessed with “Army guys.” No matter how many times I tell him that there were “Navy guys” on the Intrepid. He insists that all other branches of the military fall under the Army, and therefor insisted on being an Army guy for Halloween.

I made his costume in record time (I actually finished it in late September!) using Simplicity 3997 and some twill camoflauge fabric I got for 50 percent off at JoAnn’s.  I made a size 6 based on his measurements, thinking the pattern probably ran large, but it actually just fits. I was hoping it would be a bit big so he could wear it after Halloween for a while for dress-up play. The pants were incredibly simple to make. The jacket was a bit trickier given my lack of experience with collars and facings, but overall not too difficult. The original design calls for short sleeves, but we live in New Hampshire where it is often FREEZING on Halloween, so I used the long-sleeve pattern from one of the other costumes instead. I’m hoping we can fit some long-underwear under the jacket if it gets really cold.

The helmet came from a Haloween/party supply store.

Overall I’m happy with the costume, but I don’t like it as much as the astronaut outfit I made last year by covering a thrift-store snowsuit with white duct tape.

Here’s a glimpse of my entry for this week’s “A Gift a Week ‘Til Christmas” challenge at Works in Progress. As usual, I’m posting it on my “hidden” blog so the recipient won’t see. Leave me a comment or send me an e-mail if you don’t have the address.

Deb from Works in Progress is collecting blue and red quilt blocks to make a quilt for victims of the recent earthquake in New Zealand, where she lives. I’ve been participating in her “Gift a Week ’til Christmas” challenge and have been lucky enough to win the weekly fabric prize several times, so it was the least I could do to contribute a quilt block.

I made the mistake of grabbing a priority mail envelope at the post office and had no idea just how EXPENSIVE it is to send a quilt block to New Zealand, but I figure it was for a good cause.

And here’s a sneak peak of my Christmas gift progress this week. If you’d like to see the rest, please leave a comment or e-mail me for the link to the “hidden” blog where I’ve been posting these projects.