Super Cute (and Easy) Hair Flowers

If you've seen me or Stacey or Elizabeth around lately, you might have noticed our unique hair accessories. The June/July issue of ReadyMade gives great instructions on how to turn ugly old polyester blouses into little flowers you can glue to a headband or hair clip. I wasn't able to find the instructions on their website so here is what we did!

Supplies:
Polyester fabric
Medium sized candle
Tongs
Beads or buttons
Needle and thread
Headbands, hair clips, pins, etc.


Stacey and I found these HUGE bags of polyester squares from the Bethesda Thrift Store for 39 cents each! Some of the colors and patterns are really cute and surprisingly, some of the ugly 70's patterns turned into pretty flowers.




First, pick some pattern/color combos you like or make a solid flower, those turn out nicely too. Then, cut three or four circles with the largest being about 3" to 3.5" in diameter. Size and amount of circles really depends on how large and full you want your flower to be. I recommend that the smallest circle not be smaller than 1" because when the polyester burns smaller circles can turn out pretty wonky.



You should probably head outside for the second part which is burning your little circles. Light a candle and hold the polyester circle over the flame with the tongs until the edges start to curl. You will need to rotate the circle to get an all over curl that makes the flower look more realistic. We found that the way the polyester curls really varies so you might need to play with it for a little while until you get what you want.

After you burn the circles, you can arrange them until they fit nicely together and sew them through the middle. Thread a bead or button into the center of the flower and secure the knot in the back.

We used a hot glue gun to attach the flowers to little clips which worked pretty well. The other day when I was wearing one of the flowers in my hair, it came unglued and I just thought I would just change the flowers on the clip instead of buying a ton of clips for the 20 or so flowers I made.



These coral ones are my favorite because I think they almost look like a real poppies! I plan on attaching them to a headband as soon as Walgreens has the kind I like in stock. I love the thin, Goody Ouchless headbands. They really are ouchless and they don't overwhelm my head.

So, ta-da! I also think these simple flowers make great gifts. You could turn them into brooches and pin them to your jacket in the fall. Once I get some more materials, I will probably make a nice statement necklace. I like to wear them at the nape of my neck wear I tuck in my mullet hairs because I am too frugal to get a haircut until I absolutely need one.