Accessories Anonymous: Pleather Petals (and a GIVEAWAY!!!!)

Happy Monday, everyone! I am fortunate enough to have most Mondays off, but that is at the expense of my weekend. When you work in theatre, your "weekend" is often Monday and Tuesday. This past Saturday and Sunday I was at work all day each day, but during a break Saturday afternoon, I decided to attempt another simple craft project. Simple is always key for me because I don't have the attention span necessary to complete complex projects. That's actually not true at all. It's less about my attention span and more about my need for instant gratification. Hand-crafted items are fun for me, but I want to wear them within a couple hours of hatching the idea. Fortunately, my idea on Saturday was easily executed in about 5 minutes time.

I started with a scrap piece of red "pleather." I cut out 6 petal shapes. Then, with a needle and thread, I stitched along the bottom flat side of each "petal." I gathered them all together and stitched them more securely in place. After adding a decorative button to the front and a pin closure to the back, I had myself a fabulous brooch! (You all know how I love me some brooches!)

Please ignore my splotchy-looking skin. Fluorescent lighting isn't flattering on ANYONE. Natural light is so much better. Anyway, here's a close-up of my new pleather brooch:

Super fun, right? Vanessa (another fabulous AMT Wardrobe Department member) liked the idea, but she preferred a more bling-y center button, so I made her this fabulous fascinator:

Here's the close-up:

Vanessa recently chopped about 12 inches off her hair and now has an oh-so-adorable haircut that is PERFECT for cute headbands, fascinators and beaded clips. She's amassing quite a collection, so it's fun to see what she wears to work each day.

What do you think of my afternoon craft project? If you are interested in doing it yourself, here are the basic instructions:

1.) Start by creating your petal template using a piece of card stock or paper. I made mine very geometric. It's essentially shaped like a little house:

As you can see from the photo, it's about 1 3/8 inches wide and about 1 5/8 inches tall (measuring from the bottom to the point of the "house"). You can also see in the photo that I've marked 4 dots along the bottom. These are to serve as guides for where to stitch the needle later on.

2.) After creating your template, trace out six petals onto the fabric of your choice. I used a faux-leather, but felt, fleece and any other non-fraying fabric will work just fine. If you choose fabric that frays, you may want to finish the edges with Fray-check or something to stop the fabric from unraveling.

I used a pencil to mark out the shape, but your best bet is to use a disappearing ink pen or some other type of fabric marker that will disappear easily. If you use something permanent like a regular pen, marker or pencil, then try to cut inside the lines so that the ink doesn't show on the final product.

3.) Cut out the six petals. It's ok if they're all not perfect- you can clearly see how mine are all a little irregular and I'm not sweating it. 

Either before or after you cut out the petals, you may opt to mark each one with the stitch-guiding dots. Or, if you feel like you can "eye-ball it," then that's fine, too. Personally, I'm the "eye-ball it" type. If you choose to mark your petals, be sure to use one of the aforementioned disappearing ink pens or fabric markers so that you can remove the dots once you're done stitching.

4.) Thread a needle and knot the end. Trim the excess thread. Stitch through the dots you've marked as shown:

5.) Pull the thread tightly to gather the end of the petal together.

6.) Repeat on all 6 petals, then guide the needle back through the first petal so that they are all joined in a circle. At this point, it should look like this:

7.) Now's the time to select your center button. For this one, I chose a simple black covered button. Guide the thread through the hole in the back of the button and then stitch it securely in back. Knot the thread, trim off the excess and you're almost done. You can sew or glue the flower onto a headband, comb, hair clip, pin or whatever you like.

8.) If you're not interested in making one of these yourself, but you really want one, you can leave a comment on THIS POST and enter yourself into the Giveaway to win this darling little flower. And the best part is that I'll let the winner choose how he or she would like me to finish it. In other words, I'll wait to attach the backing until you decide if you want a hair clip, a headband, a brooch, or a comb.

You may leave up to three comments. I'll announce the winner a week from today. Good luck!