Experimenting with fabric flowers

My fiance was out of town all week, so I had lots of time peruse through wedding magazines and read up on wedding blogs. A friend of ours made some fabric flowers for her wedding, and they were so pretty that I mentally bookmarked the idea. She sewed them onto a sash for her bridesmaids and they looked so cute! Since I am only having a maid of honor, I figured I should be able to do something like this. There's no excuse, I don't have to do 5 of them.

I came across the "how-to" in the Summer 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings, which is also online here. I made the peony, but she also has a garden rose and a zinnia. The instructions are simple, these were the first two I made--so I figure I can only get better. You can too!

I used some red cotton fabric and some tiffany blue silk blend fabric to test how they'd turn out. I plan on making some more, using some different textured fabric. Here's how the initial attempt turned out:


In the meantime, the wedding planning has continued! I purchased my veil, a flower fascinator and will be purchasing a sash soon with a gift certificate I won from Bronze Budget Bride and Buds and Blooms. I also ordered a custom Sea Bag to carry my things around for the wedding, it's going to be really cute. Now, we just have to get my groom outfitted!

Etsy Finds

It's too easy to get lost on etsy with all the great finds. Seriously, there is some great stuff on there. And, of course--there's some stuff on there that leaves me saying, "people buy this?" Today, I was checking out all the different sashes. I'm still trying to decide if I want to add one to my dress for a little something extra.

Here are three that I was drawn to:

I love the pop of color that this blue flower adds. This sash is simple yet fun, and it's one of our wedding colors...score! It runs $95, not bad.



This sash is all kinds of elegant. While I do not consider myself a flashy crystal kind of girl, I love this. And, you can customize the ribbon color to fun it up some. Perhaps a nice aqua or red? This sash is a little more, but the added detail is worth it at $149



The last sash that caught my eye looks like the first two sashes I picked had a love affair. It mixes the fun of the flower with the elegance of stones and is $148 (right in the middle of the other two!). I'm going to be wearing pearls, so I like the idea of having them in my sash and fascinator (which I will be looking for next). This one is great because I can possibly throw it on something in the future. The etsy page shows it on the strap of a dress, which could be cute on a simple black dress later on.



What do you think?