From day one, I knew I would make the boutonnieres for our wedding. I wasn’t 100% on what they would look like, but I knew they would have an element of stripes. Little ideas came and went, until I came up with this simple idea. An ever-so-slight take on war medals, since my man and said groomsmen are of the combat Playstation era.

I have to thank Laura ‘Lupin’ Howard as I used her Felt Butterfly Brooch tutorial as an assembly guide for our boutonnieres. Thank you, Laura. You sew crafty.

What you’ll need : faux flowers, felt in a colour of your choice, scissors, ribbon, 3 hole brooch pin, thread to match your felt, and a  cutting template {I used the thread bobbin as a circular template}.

Step 1 : using your template, cut out two felt circles. They don’t have to be perfect since they’ll be covered. Step 2 : cut two lengths of ribbon roughly 6cm long {length of your finger}. Fold the end in half and cut at a sassy angle to spruce them up. Step 3 : overlap the ribbons a little, and sew them onto the ‘back’ of one of the felt circles. About 6 stitches will keep the ribbons in place. Trim off any excess ribbon.

Step 4 : on the ‘front’ of that same circle, sew between 6 and 8 faux flower petals using a similar colour thread. Don’t be too precise with the spacing otherwise it looks stuffy. Step 5 : with your second circle, sew the brooch pin in place using a double thickness of thread. I sewed mine above center, so the top of the boutonniere won’t droop or fall forward when eventually pinned on a lapel. Step 6 : sew the two circles together with matching thread around the circumference, and there you have it! Cuteness in under 20 minutes.

These delights cost me next to nothing since I had most of the supplies already. I ordered in the ribbon from Press Gang Supplies especially for our wedding details, and the brooch pins were picked up at the local craft store. I had some scrap felt from a previous project, and of course, I had faux hydrangeas balls-to-the-wall all over my apartment. Easy peasy. {Pictured below – the groomsmen boutonnieres along with fiance’s dark hydrangea boutonniere. I customized that little number with markers to get the colours just right and a little more realistic.}

I cannot express how much these little guys cheered me up. I haven’t had the time to make anything in the past three months, and without realizing, it was making me uber upset. I sat on the couch the other night and made all four of these delights in one go, and I felt so much better doing what I do best. Can’t wait to share more wedding craftiness.