I’ve written before of my love of things Clover so finding a new gadget in my stocking brought a smile to my face.
Better than that…
Three different sizes of Rose Maker. It’s been a dreary old day here, the roads were so slippy this morning that the whole village was doing a Skating on Ice impression in their cars and so I chose to stay at home and fiddle about before work begins tomorrow.
Anyway, as usual, the instructions are enough to fill one with fear and dread until the foreign languages are discarded and the one relevant section is identified.
Having cut the correct size piece of fabric – this is some old sheeting I dyed – the two template pieces are pinned either side of the strip by inserting the pins through the holes provided. Easier said than done, for lining them up accurately isn’t as straightforward as you’d imagine.
Having done that, it’s time to being sewing. Easy to see where to start
The instructions suggest taking 1cm long stitches, so I did. I also used double thread because, reading ahead, I spotted that these stitches will be pulled up to gather the fabric.
It’s a simple process of folding and stitching, though the folds distort the fabric a little and it has to be pulled straight to stitch. Soon, a circle is formed by the folds and it’s time to stop.
Removing the pins means that the plastic templates can be pulled through the fabric tube and the seam straightened out a little.
Pulling the thread creates a few loose gathers
The hairgrip (supplied – haven't seen one of those in years!) is used to anchor the first little seam and to begin rolling the centre of the flower.
It’s easy to do that and the stitched fabric tube curls up very readily.
Having rolled the whole piece up, it can be secured with the needle and thread,
before taking the needle completely through the base of the rose, anchoring all layers with large stitches and finally finishing off the thread securely.
There it is, the finished rose, which would have looked better had I engineered it in a way so that the deeper shades were in the centre. Never mind. Not bad, eh?
Thank you, Father Christmas. I’m delighted with your choice of gift for me!
