Felt Boutonnierres

STOP!!!!

Slowly move your hand away from that credit card. Don't spend $30-50 on each boutonniere. 

Let me show you a quick and easy way to make boutonnieres for less than $3.00 each. Yes you heard that right!!! Less than $3.00

Step 1: Purchase felt from your craft store. I purchased orange felt from Michaels for 69 cents for each sheet.

While you are at it, go ahead and buy some accent pieces you would like to add to the boutonnieres.  In this case, the accent pieces were silk flowers that I also used in the bridesmaids bouquets, killing 2 birds with 1 stone and saving money. Woot!! Woot!! 


Step 2:  Draw 2 circles on 1 felt sheet. Each circle will make 2 boutonnieres. I used a cereal bowl to draw my circles.

Step 3: Next, draw a spiral form within the circle. It doesn't need to be perfect, just something to guide you.

Cut along the spiral form. Don't throw away the felt scraps. You will need them later.

 

Step 4: Begin rolling the spiral piece starting from the outer edge towards the center. You can see the flower begin to form. It looks different depending on which end you look at it. 

The petals of the loose flower are more defined and the ones in the tight flower and close together. I preferred the loose flower so proceeded with that.

Loose flower

Tight flower

Step 5: Using your glue gun, glue the end of the felt to the bottom of the flower.

And that's it!!! You have your felt flower.

You can use the flower for other things too - brooches, hair accessories etc. 

Step 6: Remember the scraps left after cutting the circles? Cut out a small piece and play around with the placement of your accents until you are satisfied.

Placement of accents

Step 7: Glue your accents to the small piece of felt then glue your felt flower on top of them.

Glue a safety pin to the back

And you have your boutonniere. 

Here is a different variation I made for the bride's father

Step 8: Count your savings. 

Below is the breakdown for each bountonniere:

Each yellow flower stalk was $2.49 and had 3 flowers on it - cost 83 cents/flower. The orange bulbs were cut from a small section of the bigger branch ($11.00 and w/ 50% coupon - $5.50) - cost 61 cents/branch. Each branch made 2-3 boutonnieres so ~30 cents per boutonniere.

 Felt - 35 cents (69 cents per sheet, makes 2)
Yellow flower and leaf - 83 cents
Orange bulb - 30 cents
Glue gun and sticks - had on hand (~ 50cents per stick)

TOTAL - $1.98

SAVINGS - $28-48 per boutonniere

Now if that isn't saving money, I don't know what is :D