Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Frozen Movie Inspired Hair Flower

Hello everyone,

The movie Frozen is so fun. You've probably heard Let It Go a million times and read lots of different blogs' takes on what it all means. Personally, I think it is a story about an introverted (almost social anxiety-ish) sister contrasted with an outgoing, gregarious sister, and finding ways to love each other when you feel so different. Sigh. Now I'm just projecting my problems...

But that's neither here nor there. You are here to see a fabric flower. So here is it. (Modeled hesistantly by my daughter. She's kind of like an Elsa. And maybe my little baby daughter will be like an Anna, she seems pretty social even though she's only three months, definitely not old enough to talk my ear off yet.)

Frozen Inspired Hair Flower

It is delicate and lovely. We made it, my daughter and I, for her friend and her Frozen inspired half birthday party. It was a really fun party. My daughter helped me make the flower. She's only four, but she loves to pull the needle through after I place it and she did a few stitches. I love that she is already learning how to sew. And she loves learning this stuff. I hope I can teach her some good skills she'll need to be a good adult.

It is nine- and eight-pointed. Not really a well-represented snow flake with six points, but that would have left the flower looking too anemic and sparse. I wanted it fluffy and juicy. And my reasoning behind the nine and eight are thus. The nine on the outer circle reminds me of the 9/8 time signature that makes up a slip jig, an Irish step dance time signature that is just for the ladies.

Now you've gotta go watch a slip jig. I learned one very similar to this one while I was a student at BYU. Good times.
Slip Jig on YouTube.

Ooh, the Baha'i nine-pointed star has some pretty cool symbolism. You learn something new everyday. Baha'i symbols on Wikipedia.

The eight pointed star is like two squares tilted with respect to each other. A square represents earthly things, the four corners of the globe. (Haha! How can a globe have four corners? Well, it does in this analogy. Just let it be.) And maybe you already know that the circle can be a representation of heaven. If you feel like throwing a circle in there with the two squares, you've got a nice looking eight-pointed star symbol that you might see adorning an LDS (Mormon) temple. It's the meeting of heavenly things with earthly things. I like it. It can also be called the Seal of Melchizedek or it can also be like the eight points of a compass.

The Seal of Melchizedek on the San Diego temple. Lovely.

Here's a lovely link to some great temple architecture at The Trumpet Stone.

How to make it: I'm not exactly sure how to describe it other than it's like rolled circles. Here's a paper craft that comes pretty close to my fabric flower. Tutorial thanks to Ideas For Scrapbookers and the Handmade Dahlia.

I also made a wreath out of old book pages using this rolled cylinder style. Danelle's Upcycled Book Wreath. The circles on the bigger, outer rim were eyeballed (yes, that is the technical term) to be about two inches in diameter. They still make the flower surprisingly large, about 4.5 to 5 inches in diameter. That's getting to be pretty big for a kid's head. I like the size, though.

I used some material that someone gave to me, it has a scroll work design embroidered on it and it is clear white material, kind of starchy. The inner material is white, very thin, silky, and transparent, like a scarf. I'm not sure what it's called. Organza, probably? Then I purchased the little jewel at a fabric store. It was in one of the cheap dollar bins or clearance. Probably because they look wintery and winter was over.

I stitched the outer rim first, rolling the circles to little cylinders and stitching through it to secure it to a little gray felt circle on the bottom that makes the sturdy base of the flower. You'll want to put your stitches in a place where they will be hidden by the next rim of dahlia flower petals. Also use white thread so it will blend right in if it is peeking out. Continue with the next rim of white organza. I put another scroll work circle in the center to hide some stitching by pinching it a tiny bit and stitching it on so it will not be so flat, it will have a little oomph and poke out slightly. Then add the jewel by stitching it on. (My two fabrics were slightly different from each other, but that may be difficult to tell from the lighting in the photos.)

Then get out your hot glue gun, grab a hair clip like an alligator hair clip, cut another felt circle to hide the stitching, attach it with the glue gun, and attach the hair clip to the felt with a glue gun. Bam! Done.

One last look. I love it. I think I'll have to make more.


Stay tuned for my Frozen inspired wreath.

Let It Go and Goodnight!

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