The Finishing Touch.

As promised here's the last part of the ruffle dress I made the other day. Let's jump right in.

I cut half circles almost 4 1/2'' in diameter. You can cut out circles and then just cut them in half but I didn't have a big enough piece of fabric left over from the shirt to do that.

I cut out 10 circles, but only ended up using 9 of them. It all depends on how big of a flower you want to end up with.

Once your circles are cut, fold them over, with right sides together. You'll end up with two straight sides and one curved side. Sew along the curved part of the folded circle ONLY.

Once your circles are sewn turn them right side out. Make sure you get the top point of the flower petals pushed out or your petals will look weird.

Now, lay your petals in a row, with all the top points facing the same direction. Baste each petal, by setting your machine on it's longest stitch and sewing a straight line across the bottom of each petal WITHOUT cutting your threat and with as little space as possible between the petals.  If you look hard enough you can see the bottom part of the petals sewn close together in the picture below.

Now pull on one side of your thread until your flower petals are gathered and somewhat ruffled. Then simply place, them in a circle, where you'd like them to end up. I placed mine smack dab in the middle of the shirt in as perfect a circle as I possibly could. Pin in place. Use as many pins as needed to keep the circle together. Sew in place.

Once your flower is sewn onto your shirt, cut a circle from a matching fabric or the same material of the flower, the size of the hole in the middle of your flower but add 1/4''. Tuck the outer edges under as you hand sew it in place. 

What do you think? A keeper for sure? Evan Grace loved it.

One thing I forgot to mention, I hand stitched a few stitches in the very tops points of the top petals. They were too big and kept falling forward over the middle black circle. If you start with smaller circles you'll of course end up with smaller petals and may not need to add in the stitches. I think this flower would look cute if it were smaller and on a headband of some sort. I might do that next.