Fabric Flower Ring

Since my 6th month of pregnancy I haven't been able to wear my wedding ring---I was so sad and looked forward to when I could wear it again. So when I had my baby in January, I thought, okay...I'll wait a few weeks and see if it fits again...in hopes that all my swelling would go down and I'd be somewhat back to normal. Well, I've tried my ring on every couple of weeks since then and although my swelling has long been gone, I've discovered that my knuckles are still too big. Sad! Will they ever go back? So I decided to make a temporary ring to get me through until then. I looked at the craft store for some kind of ring I could use to put something on, and I came across a "jump ring holder" in the jewelry section. I tried it on my ring finger and BINGO! It fit just right. So I thought I'd make it work. I made these cute, tiny little fabric flowers with ripped strips of fabric that I then twisted and hot glued together in a spiral. Then I sewed on some little green beads and attached the whole thing to the ring. I think it has a sort of shabby, charming look to it. Then, on Friday, I found some actual adjustable rings that I think I might try a few things with....I thought maybe some vintage-y old buttons---we'll see...

"Vintage" Fleurettes

I realized that in between my bigger projects, I have mini-projects...and this is one of them. I made this pretty little flower out of satinette, gold tulle, and a "vintage" brad. I put it on a pin so that you can wear it on a coat, or put it on a purse or anywhere else you feel like fancy-ing up. I actually like the slightly burned edges on it---it makes it feel older, and I really like that kind of thing. For anyone that wants to know how to do this---all you need is a candle and the things I mentioned above. At first I was using matches, and I went through about 20 when I realized....why am I not using a CANDLE?!? So all you do is cut the satinette into circles, starting with a big circle for the outer petal, then cut them smaller and smaller as you move to the inside. Then you burn or just barely melt the edges of your circles with the flame--careful to not catch it on fire! I also did this with the tulle---but it does burn a lot faster, so I just quickly swiped the edges of the tulle across the flame and that did the trick. Once I had them all burned, I arranged the circles how I liked them, then I poked a hole in the center with my exacto knife so I could put my brad through. It's as easy as that! And super fun, too! I also made a smaller one and put it on a bobby pin for a cute vintage hair clip. Now I hafta get back to my mirrored window frame I'm working on......crackle paint is my doom....