SCRAPPY BUTTERFLY WREATH

I made a scrappy butterfly wreath.  This may be my favorite project to date.

I really enjoyed making this, even though it involved getting my sewing machine out.  I had to call my friend Judy and ask her to please pray for me because I hadn't used my sewing machine for like 12 years.  It was a $99 sewing machine to begin with and I had moved several times, so I wasn't too sure it would be cooperative.  Seriously, it took me longer to figure out how to thread my machine and bobbin, than it did to make the three little 1 1/2" straight stitches that I needed. 

The first thing I did was make those adorable scrappy little butterflies.  Here is a close up of them so you can see how cute they are with their wrinkly dimension:

To make these, I cut a template of three different sized butterflies and traced them on to some fabric.  I cut out 3 pieces of each size. 

Next, I crumpled each piece up into a little ball.

Now, this is the part that although it seems strange, will give your little butterflies some extra dimension......smash them down with a hot iron.  Just for a couple of seconds and don't move the iron around.  Just smash 'em.

Now that you have them all wrinkled and smashed, open them up, smooth them out and stack them up.  This is where the sewing machine comes in for it's 1 minute debut.  Sew a straight stitch down the center of each of your 3 stacked butterflies.

Time for a little embellishment!  Grab some cute buttons and sew them into the centers of each butterfly.

These sweet things have been wrinkled, hot-smashed, smoothed out, stitched up and embellished and now they need to be shown off!  Remember back on St. Patrick's Day when I made a burlap wreath?  If you missed that one, you can find it by clicking here.  I'm using that same burlap wreath base for this project.

I just took strips of burlap and pinned them on to a Styrofoam wreath.

I embellished that basic wreath with some yellow flowers and some yellow silk ribbon.  Then, I attached my scrappy little butterflies with straight pins.  You can't see them, because I only pinned the bottom layer. 

So here is my finished wreath.

Oh......do you like that little stand holding my wreath???  It used to be this:

I had a pair of these leaves on some kind of resin base.  My mother-in-law got them for me.  One of them broke about 8 years ago.  I couldn't throw the base out.  My darling husband, Sam, cut the stem off and drilled out the center of the base.  Then he snapped a nail off and inserted it into the center.  My Styrofoam wreath slid right onto that nail spike with ease and when I'm tired of it....I'll just pop it right off.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  I'm putting my sewing machine away now.

Maybe I won't wait 12 years to get her out again!!!

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