Fabric Flowers

This week has been such a rollercoaster! 4 hours of sleep per night and countless of cups-o'-coffee made me very jittery throughout the week. This should teach me not to leave assignments and essays till the very the last minute. =(

So, yesterday I decided to take a breather, and turned to some simple sewing projects. I had plans to make Heather Bailey's Yoyos for the longest time. I think they would look so lovely on a ponytail holder. And then I was reminded by Sew Mama Sew's post of the Jennifer Paganelli's Flower Power contest. The submissions for the contest are so awesome! I love the flower goodness. And while I knew I had practically zero chance in making something as good as those, I wanted to join in the fun. And I did =).

This was the first one I made using this lovely tutorial.

It probably makes one go "errrrmmm", when placed next to all those wonderful submissions! But I was so happy that fabric flowers are incredibly forgiving. I still have so much to learn about sewing (this is my second project using the sewing machine. Yes, I am afraid of that machine!), and I was worried that I would muck it up somehow.

Then, later at night, I simply had to try a second fabric flower tutorial! I tried this here and I added the felt leaves on =). I admit that the flower may not be so awesome here, but do visit the link to the tutorial, because the original flowers made are brilliant!

In addition to making the flowers, Sew Mama Sew requested that it be used or attached to something else. This was the difficult part! I could just sew flower after flower, and just collect them in a little jar! Hehe =D. But the more sensible thing to do, I thought, was to spread the flower-power love!
So I used the blue one to wrap my friend's 20th birthday gift (the celebration dinner was last night!). Seeing her face light up by that simple little flower was awesome! She's an architecture student, and she loves all things handmade.

The yellow one, is somewhat more dear to me. It's far from perfect, but I love how sweet the yellow comes out with the green leaves. This had to be used for something more special. And to me, nothing spells special but my little sister. She is currently going through a reading frenzy. This makes me so happy as I love books, and she has taken up to reading my library of childhood books.

Jane Eyre is one of my favourites. And this abridged version was given to me by mom when I was a child. It was actually gifted to her by her sister (whom is my aunt) in 1971! It's tatty and old, but so filled with sweet memories. I read it so many times, causing several pages to detach themselves from the spine.
The tradition shall be continued =). I wrapped Jane Eyre up in pink (my sister's favourite colour) tissue wrapper, ribbons and the flower. It is now waiting to board a plane with a family friend whom will visit my family soon =).

So the plan is to use fabric flowers from now on to wrap gifts =D! Now, I shall trot off to swoon at Jennifer Paganelli's latest fabrics, before facing the murderous law books!