A Day of Making Tulle Flowers and Satin Leaves

I had originally planned to make the tiebacks for the drapery panels with silver/gray leaves at the back and a cluster of tiny fabric roses on top. But I saw this hair pin which I fell in love with and used as inspiration for a slightly different tieback.

The challenge was making that many leaves all the same size. Hand-cutting sounded like a long, tedious project. So I enlisted the help of Nate, my graphic designer son who drew the leaf design into a 6 1/2" round shape by using 4 leaves attached together.

He uses his computer and drawing pad to create it and then sends it over to the attached die-cutting machine which cuts them out in precise even pieces. Prior to cutting, however, I fused 2 layers of the silver fabric together. This had several advantages...........this kept the leaves from being floppy, the leaves look the same on the back as they do the front and finally, it keeps the edges from fraying.

I layered two 6 1/2" leaf clusters, then two 5 1/2" clusters and finally two 4 1/2" clusters as the base for the tieback. Each layer has a tiny pearl bead in between them to give it more dimension.

Next I drew a rose petal which Nate transferred to his computer and then sent to the die-cutter. The rose petals are cut out of tulle which was a little more tricky to cut. Because the fabric has such an open-weave, the knife wanted to drag the fabric instead of cut it. Nate finally thought of a solution that made it happen. He took a layer of tulle and ironed it onto freezer paper which gave it enough body to remain rigid while being cut. After it was cut, the tulle peeled right off the paper.

Megan helped with the process of removing the tulle petals from the sticky backed mat and freezer paper.

Because the tulle is so thin, it is hard to see its color unless there are several layers together. I took 2 tulle petals stacked on top of each other and folded them into fourths. I took a single stitch at the point of the folds and attached 7 white layers and then 7 pink layers in this manner on top of the leaves.

To secure it all and give the tulle flower a nice center, a pink opaque pearl was sewn on top. Then a wisp of feather was tucked under the tulle petals. Finally, 6 white streamers and 6 pink streamers were added to the bottom of the tieback along with 3 rows of strung pearl and crystal beads.