Fabric Leaves

Well, it has been a while since I have posted, as I was in a mad rush to complete various items that were required for a HUGE underwear show that I was invited to give at a church here in town.  It was the most fun I have had at a show in a while...I will be sharing pictures with you later....for now, I will be sharing many of the items that I was in a hurry to complete...

First off...I felt the need to make flowers for my 1920s Ivory Silk Ruched Cloche from some of the fabrics I used on my dress.  You know so they could match!  

I guess you could say that I am not a disciple of the age old adherence to Math and measuring.  I basically just eye ball everything.  If it looks straight, it'll do.  So, for the flowers and leaves, I just ripped (for the silk) and cut (for the taffeta) strips of fabric that looked like they would work nicely!   ;-)

Because silk and taffeta make it their life's mission to ravel (or is it unravel?) I folded the strips in half lengthwise and performed zig-zag surgery upon them.

Next, (now remember I was just playing around here...) I thought that rounding the edges would be a good idea.  Turns out, my thought was a right thought.  I stitched away...

Again, remembering the raveling (or unraveling) I again zig-zagged around the raw edges...After zig-zagging, I sewed a gathering length running stitch along the zig-zag stitch.......

 and gathered it as tightly as I could without breaking the thread.

Folding the "leaf" in half, I then sewed up along the gathering stitch to create the "vein" of the leaf.

Back side of leaf after sewing the "vein"

Front of leaf.  Ha!  It turned out nicely!

Leaf pinned to hat to see how it would look.  

Next, a look at the flower petals.....and I will try to describe how I made them without the aid of construction pictures!!!