Kristl Pelz: August 2007 Archives

Moniqa is our Graphic Artist. She is one of the most creative young ladies I have ever known, and I have known a lot of creative ladies! Moniqa creates purses, tops and dresses for herself and these wonderful flowers. We all marvel at them when she wears them to work. She'll pin them to her top or coat, but usually we see them on her handbags. She designed the handbags herself, too.

Here's a link to the pattern, but I wanted to give you a little instruction to go with it here.

• You decide a set number of petals to cut from any fabric you like. Felt, suede and faux suede will not unravel. Silks and other interesting woven fabrics will, but if you can stand it, the raveling can become part of the design.
  
• There is a template for the stigma, or center of the flower.
• You will clip little fringes half-way through your strip of fabric and roll it to create the center.
  
• Hand stitch the bottom of the roll to hold it in place.
  
• The bottom layer of petals are the larger size petal template. Lay them in a circle overlapping them slightly and hand tack them together. Do the same for the smaller top layer of petals.
  
• Push the sigma through the middle and hand stitch the whole flower together picking up each petal layer and securing it into the stigma.
  
• Add a little fabric or felt circle at the back either with glue or hand stitching.
  
• Now you can add a pin back or create a necklace with two pieces of ribbon. Make several flowers and create a fantastic bracelet!

Remember, these are only guidelines. You can make the flower larger. You can make the stamens shorter, longer, thicker, thinner. Add leaves. I think you get the drift. Try my No Rules rule: just start cutting and see what happens. I think that's how Moniqa came up with this project in the first place.

Have fun!
Kristl

P.S. The green flower is created from Dupioni Silk and the indigo flower is wool felt.

This is going to be a little personal. You see, I have a problem. It's not an unusual situation, and I think most of you can sympathize. My name is Kristl, and I'm a fabri-holic. I'm not sure I'm working in the right environment to change my ways, either. I am better than I was. Just imagine landing a job here at fabric.com as a fabri-holic, and getting a great discount. Not only that, I got to help pick out what we sell on the website. After six years, you can imagine my stash.

My passions are natural fibers - silks, woolens, linen especially. I think living in the Beautiful South give me an affinity for linen. And, we can wear it eight months a year if you get the colors right. If you've been with us long enough, you know how many thousands of yards of dupioni silk have run through our warehouse. I think I have some of every exotic color that ever came through. I love the lustrous colors so much. I have a few skirts and the rest is waiting for ideas. My favorite skirt is made of washed dupioni, but that's a story for another time.

So, tell me, what's your fabric passion? What makes you stop in your tracks and buy it - whether it's on sale or not? I have a new topic on the discussion board on that very subject today. Here's a link:

Kristl