Thursday, March 15, 2012

DIY: Silk Flower Pomander

Sorry for the blogging absence, I've been too busy enjoying my spring break from work. You can't tell, but I am dancing. Right. Now.

So, what does this teacher do on her spring break vacation? I'll catch you up with some highlights from this week, so far:
1. Catered cake and cupcakes to a child's 4th birthday party.
2. Completed Sacramento's Shamrock'n'Half-Marathon for the second time. However, this time I ran the race with my brother!
3. Went on a hunt for affordable and stylish men's gray suits for the groomsmen in our wedding (it was successful).
4. Finalized details with my florist for the wedding (and shaved over 700 bucks off our total!)
5. Slept in.
6. Created Save the Dates for our wedding.
7. Slept in.
8. Got back in touch with my crafty side...thanks to my free time!
9. Baked delicious salted caramel and banana cupcakes for my fiance's coworkers.
10. Slept in.

Next week, we are celebrating our 5-year anniversary! This will be our last anniversary together while dating! I'm super excited for the mini-vacation we have planned-- a road trip to Monterey/Carmel for a few days, down towards Santa Barbara, and finally to L.A. to visit my family....AND pick up my wedding gowns (eeek!!).

Anyway, I mentioned that I met with my wedding florist and finalized a lot of details. One of the things I love about the floral plans we have going on is the addition of whimsical, modern, and elegant pomanders. Here are some of the inspiration photos I used to help create a look for our day:

via
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I wanted to add pomanders to the alter, very much like the first photo, and also have some on every other chair along the aisle. However, the cost of real flower pomanders is pretty high.  I decided to add some lovely free flowing fabric to alter in a color that matches our scheme. To incorporate that style into the aisle, I thought I would take a stab at making silk flower pomanders. With time on my side this break, I figured I would make one and see how I liked it. I was a little hesitant to try them out at first since paper pomanders can look so tacky and cheap. I ended up liking the end result quite a bit...and so did my fiance! The trick is to make sure you use fabric that has some nice sheen to it and doesn't fray easy. I went with a silky feeling fabric that is typically used as lining inside garments (forgive me for not knowing the fabric name). Also, the whole thing took a while because I wanted to keep the "petals" close together. When they were spread apart, the pomander started to look like a loofa....uh no thanks.   

This is what my faux-floral pomander looks like: 

The color is brighter in the photo than it really is. Actually, it's more of a deep rose shade of pink. 


Here's a tutorial on how to make a silk flower pomander. It's time consuming, but not very difficult. To be honest, there are tons of these out on the web, but I thought it would be nice to start a DIY section on OMP!. Enjoy!

DIY Silk Flower Pomander

Materials:
-1 1/4 yard of fabric (go for something that has sheen to it and doesn't fray easily).
-pencil
-circular object or template approx 3-3.5" in diameter (for tracing)
-5" Styrofoam ball
-30" ribbon (this will end up making a 15" hang since you will be folding it in half; you can adjust this measurement to fit  your desired length)
-good fabric cutting scissors
-hot glue gun and extra sticks
-covered work area (in case hot glue drips out)
-coffee & a good movie (for your sanity)




*Note: I used between 75-95 cut circle pieces. I tried to keep track, but um, between watching movies and groaning at the long process...I lost count. :) 







1 comment:

  1. I am going to copy you! This is such a great idea! Thanks Mok! Did you finish making all of them? If not let's have a flower making party!

    ReplyDelete