Flower bib necklace

So here is what you need…about 1/4 yard of tulle – any color you want
a piece of coordinating felt
40-44 inches of coordinating grosgrain ribbon (cut in half)
coordinating thread and a needle
coordinating pearls or beads
scissors
pins
a glue gun (not pictured)
okay…let’s make this thing!

I drew out some templates of the shapes you will need…thinking it would probably help most of you – see, I’m an ‘eye baller’ type so, well…I usually just eye ball it!  here they are…

so start out by folding your tulle until it’s only maybe 2 inches wide and pin your circles 1,2, 3 and 4(not pictured) to your tulle.

now go grab your garbage can before you cut or you will be finding the tiniest pieces of tulle stuck to everything in March

cut them all out and you should have something that looks like this…let’s start with the easiest flowers first.
grab 12-15 layers of circle #2 and make two identical piles
even them up the best you can and then grab your needle and thread and tack them together like so…
then take 2-3 more layers and fold them in half and sew them to the top of your flower
trim off all the uneven edges…about an 1/8 of an inch so all the edges are nice and even and then repeat those steps so you now have two identical flowers…
Now let’s go to the hardest flower (not THAT hard so don’t worry). Take your pile of circle #1 and separate it into 15-16 piles, 2-3 layers each of tulle. If you have left over…no worries. and remember, all the numbers I’m throwing at you are NOT set in stone, you can play around with it to get a slightly different look.

now you are going to overlap your little piles in a fan like pattern…

continue like this until well, it looks like a flower. Just make sure it doesn’t exceed 3 inches across…

then pull your needle and thread through the middle so you don’t lose your new little creation.
I forgot to photograph a step for you…before you tie off your big flower, grab 10 of your circle #4 and place them in the center with 5-6 more layers folded in half on top of the pile of 10 and sew them on too. (see one of the finished photos if you need a visual)

Now you will be making 4 of the next flower…
you need to dig into your circle #3s and make 4 piles of 12-15 layers each AND 4 piles of 5-6 layers of circle #4.  Line them up when you are making your piles, but don’t worry about them laying perfectly on top of one another-we are going for a nice pedal look here. Then grab your #4s and fold them in half, place them on top of your #3s and sew in place. 
here mine are with their beads on too. (you can wait until all your flowers are done to put the beads and pearls on)

your on your last 2 flowers! We are going to use circle #2 and make 10 piles of 2 layers each. Now, overlap them in a fan – like pattern…just how you did with your big flower. You don’t want these 2 flowers to exceed 2 inches across. It should look like this…

grab a pile of 5-6 #4s and fold them in half and sew them to the middle of your 2 little flowers. Now you should have 9 flowers all together. You can pick out your pearls and beads to sew to the centers to finish them off…

the next step is to pin your bib template and 2 circle #5s to your felt and cut them out…now make a smiley face and smile along with it…
so now, we are ready to put it all together! Here is what you should be looking at right about now…

I had to change tables – glue guns are NOT allowed on my kitchen table! 
Glue your big momma flower to the center of your necklace…

then your first 2 flowers centered on either end…

then place the others where you think looks best. I put the 4 identical flowers right underneath the 2 top flowers and the two smaller fanned out flowers on either side of your large fanned out flower.

turn it over and glue the ribbon to either end.

now glue your felt circles over your grosgrain ends…this is a handmade necklace, but it doesn’t have to scream ‘unfinished’ – now the back is finished and pretty!

Now turn it back over and admire your work…note: I did carefully glue down some of the loose edges (don’t let the glue seep through to the top layer of your tulle – you will get an ugly glue mark that won’t go away!)

I also glued down all my beads and pearls (yes, I did sew them on too – I was just being double careful) because well, let’s face it – the kiddies are going to grab at this one!

now you can try it in any color!