Mother's Day Brooch

I managed to eek out my mom's Mother's Day present over the last couple of days. I knew that a picture of her favorite (okay, only) grandson was a must, and I know she loves the fabric flowers that are all over the web almost as much as I do. She doesn't wear many necklaces, and I couldn't figure out a good way to incorporate my idea into a bracelet. So I was left with making a fun brooch!

The brooch involves 3 fabric flowers made from remnant denim and remnant patterned cotton and a photo charm. Here the quick tutorial for how I made it!

Flower #1

1. Cut out 6 petals. I cut two slightly different sizes.

2. Fold each side of the bottom the petal towards the center.

3. Stitch your fold secure. (The arrow is pointing at the stitch.)

4. Continue with each petal, alternating between the 2 different size petals, and attach each new petal to the previous petal as you go.

5. After you have added the 6th petal, attach it back to the 1st petal to make a flower.

6. Cut out a circle that will fit the center of your flower.

7. Stitch the circle to the center of the petals with a tight "x" stitch. That will pinch the circle a little to give it some volume.

8. I cut a strip of scrap fabric to make a rosette. The strip wasn't long enough for a good rosette so I cut it twice as wide as I needed and cut it down the middle to about 1/4" from the end.

9. I started rolling one of the ends for the rosette.

10. The completed rosette.

11. Stitch the rosette to the center of the flower.

12. I cut a long thin strip of the cotton material and twisted it very tight.

13. Stitch one end of the twisted material to the outside of the rosette.

14. Wrapped the twisted end about 3 times around the rosette and stitch the end to the flower.

Flower #2

1. For the next flower, cut 4 circles all the same size. Fold each circle so that the colored side of the material is facing the outside (mine is reversed in the picture above... don't ask!). Don't fold the circle completely in half.

2. Fold the circle again.

3. This is just an alternate view of #2.

4. Stitch the bottom corner of the circle so that it will stay folded.

5. Continue to do this with all 4 of the circles then stitch them together to make the flower.

6. Attach whatever decoration you like to the center. I've added a decorative button and a pearl.

Flower #3

This flower is just a rolled fabric rose of the contrasting cotton remnant. I stitched a small scrap piece of the denim material to the center so that it more easily blends with the other two flowers.

For the photo charm, I selected a recent photo from my ginormous stash of pictures of my son. I made it black and white so as not to be too bright in contrast to my flowers. I did leave his eyes blue since he has such amazing eyes!

Photo Charm

1. Measure how big you need to make your photo and edit the size in your drawing program (you can probably also do this in Word).

2. Print your photo and trace along the edges of the glass insert so you know where to cut the photo.

3. Trim the photo and insert into the charm as per the instructions. (I snagged this one in a 2-pack from Hobby Lobby for just over $1! Gotta love the 50% off!)

4. I made a note of the back of the photo to date when the charm was put together.

I arranged the flowers and charm and flipped them over to add a backing. I actually backed them with a piece of the denim first (no photo, sorry!) to be sure that when I added the felt it would not show through. I also stitched the charm to the denim, which you can't really tell in any of my photo.

For sturdiness, I attached a piece of felt then added the pinback.

The completed brooch. I made a bow out of the cotton material and glued it to the top of the charm just to spread a little color of the cotton material to the rest of the brooch.

My mom can wear this with almost any outfit with these subdued colors.

And also attach it to her purse and handbags!

I've already warned her to stay away from the blog until Mother's Day. I hope she listened to me!

Sorry for the washed out photos. We're having major flood weather here and there's not a chance of seeing any sunshine soon!