Fabulous Free Pattern Friday

Oh my goodness, why is she showing us bows? Don't worry, this isn't the free pattern, but I just had to include this today. While I was working on today's project, it put me in such a mood to play, that I decided to give the bows a try. They are from a wonderful blog, www.howaboutorange.blogspot.com. The person behind the blog is super talented. She does such wonderful things, she has a line of fabrics that are carried here in Chicago at The Needle Shop. She has designed ribbons for a company that makes dog collars and leashes, just so multi-talented. Quite a while back, she posted a tutorial on making bows from magazine paper. Once I got started, I was having so much fun, I didn't want to stop.

 This one is from a Chanel ad.

 A Dolce and Gabanna ad.

 Stella McCartney.

And just an ad that I liked the color mix.
As I was making the bows, it occurred to me that making bows would make for a wonderful Girls Night Out Party. Bring lots of fashion magazines, a hot glue gun, a ruler, a pencil and a stapler and away you go. Add a few bottles of wine and the bows could get really interesting. You can find the tutorial here. By the way, she has a connection on her blog today where you can download a really fun calender, for free. Doesn't get any better than that.
So now for today's pattern. I'm doing this because I wanted to include something that does not need to be sewn, something for everyone who enjoys a little crafting.
The Rose

Today's pattern comes to us by way of John Koch, the wonderful man I keep telling you about. Last week I showed you a bag that I had completed with him. The bag in the above picture is the first bag I made with John. During the class, we took a little break and John showed us how to make the roses that are in the above pictures. They are very simple to make, and take very few tools.

You will need a measuring tablespoon and a coffee measuring spoon. Mine came from a can of Stewart's Coffee. They may come in Folger's Coffee, but I'm not sure.

Elmer's Glue.
You will also need:
Photo Copy Paper
100% Cotton Or 100% Silk Shantung Fabric (the silk makes exquisite flowers)
A Glue Gun
A Brush for smoothing out the glue.
To begin, you will need to cut;
4, 4" squares of fabric
4, 5" squares of fabric
2, 6" squares of fabric
You will also need ;
2, 4" squares of photocopy paper
2, 5" squares of photocopy paper
1, 6" square of photo copy paper

 To begin, put glue on paper.

 Take your brush and fan out the glue, making sure the entire surface is coated.

 Take the first 4" square and match it to the paper. Smooth it out.

 Put glue on opposite side and attach another piece of fabric. Do the other set of 4" squares.

 Take the first square that was glued and fold into 4ths.

 Cut towards the center and stop about 1/2" away from center. Cut all 4 sides.

Once the cuts are made, round off all corners.

Now the fun begins. Take the coffee measuring spoon and push the fabric into the spoon.

You may need to go around the petals a few times to get the rounded shape that you would like.

For the bud, I used the edge of the spoon to crimp the edge of the petal.

 Once all four petals are as you would like, form them into a bud shape.

 Take a piece of paper and make a stand for the bud to sit in.

 For the following petals, you will also need a ring to get the rounded shape of the edge of the petals,.

Take the next petal, glue and round the edges as before. This piece will not be as tight as the bud, remember, you are building a flower from the middle out.

 Continue with the 5"squares and make a basket for them to sit in.

 The final square will be the 6" square. The first cut will be as the others, towards the center keeping away from the center by about 1/2".

 The next cuts will be on an angle.

 There will be 5 angles in total.

 Round off the edges.

For this set of petals you will use the larger measuring spoon.

Once all the petals are done, they will look like this. At this point, you can allow them to dry over night, or

put them in the microwave for no more than 1 minute.
Once the petals are dry, simply stack them and glue the layers together with a glue gun.

 I save all of my old leather gloves. To finish off the back, I cut a circle of leather.

 Fold the circle in half and match a pin to it. Mark where the ends are and make 2 small slashes.

 Between the slashes, on the back side of the leather, put a small bead of hot glue.

 Push the ends of the pin through the leather and glue the pin in.

 Apply glue to the entire surface of the back side of the leather.

 Place over the flower and glue in place.

If there are some loose edges, add a little more glue.

The completed rose. I made mine out of the musical cotton fabric as I plan to give these away as gifts and the musical notes are the perfect touch. I did this rose last night and from start to finish, it took me about an hour. Not bad.

The above rose is a silk shantung Rose that John made. Beautiful!

Good luck. The possibilities are endless for what you can do.
Rhonda