Burned rose tutorial

This is my first real tutorial so...keep it in mind:) This is for what I call the "Burned Rose" fabric flower.

• First off pick your fabric of choice (silk blends/polyester burn the prettiest so use these). Once you have your fabric of choice start cutting! For this flower I cut a total of 14 rectangles, varying in sizes. 

This is the size of the first two rectangles.

All 14 rectangles decreasing in length and width.

• Next comes the fun part...playing with fire. Keep your fingers as far away from the flames as possible (Trust me, I know from experience). The fabric will burn quickly so don't leave it in the fire for longer than 2 sec.

• Continue to burn the rectangle until it looks like this: 

• After you burn each rectangle, start stacking/placing them how you want. Some flowers I end up using all 14, others I want less petals so it's up to you if you want to use them all. As you stack them, criss-cross them/alternate like so:

• Keep alternating until you are satisfied with the size and shape of your rose.

• Now it's time to keep them together. If you're short for time just hand sew all the petals together at once, by going straight through the middle of the rose (up and down at least 3 times, then secure on the bottom) or you can sew each petal together to make it even more secure. I did the second option for the tutorial. I do two petals at a time:

Go up from the bottom then back down, add two more petals and repeat.

• The end result will look like this:

 

Now you can either leave it the way it is or add some beads/pearls to the center to make it "fancy".

Also hot glue a circle of felt to the back to hide the sewing marks, then glue an alligator clip and/or a brooch pin (i think that's what they're called).

TA DA! You're all done! Now you can add it to a belt, your hair, a purse or whatever you feel like doing:)