Millinery Flower Workshop - The Basics

Have you ever struggled to find the perfect flowers for your millinery projects? Craft store flowers are often clunky and cheap-looking. Vintage millinery flowers can be hard to find or expensive.

Why not learn to make your own? Using just a few simple materials and heated tools, you can create almost any blossom you can imagine! Fabrics can be hand-dyed to create lifelike blooms, or you can use scraps of your dress fabric for a perfect match.

In this course, you'll learn the basics of creating silk millinery flowers by hand. The class focuses on shaping and creating two popular flowers - an old-fashioned rose and a peony.

The course includes:

• Historical notes on silk flower making from the 18th to 20th centuries
• Overview of tools and materials, including shopping links
• Discussion of both professional tools and improvised tools
• How to prepare and dye fabrics
• How to make stamens
• Templates for basic flower shapes, roses, and peonies
• Written and video instruction for making old-fashioned roses
• Written and video instruction for making peonies

This class is intended for beginners who have never made silk flowers. At the end of this class, you will know how to select and prepare materials and assemble simple millinery flowers. With these skills, you can move on to more advanced flowers and techniques in future classes.