A rose by any other name

I've had this purse sitting in my bag o'things to finish for probably 2 months now. It's the same basic design as this purse in my Cargoh shop (and will be listed for the same price later today... hopefully) but in keeping with putting different finishing touches on this line of purses, I had no idea what I was going to do to make this one 'special'.

Wow, that's a long, awkward sentence.

Anyhoo, I didn't want to just slap something on and be done with it. So I figured, why not try to do something that goes with the interior? The lining is a very unique floral print, mostly abstract (or what I call abstract) but not easy to replicate. The flowers in the print are roses and I've been thinking about trying my hand at making fabric flowers for a few weeks now... perfect opportunity, right?

Wrong. Oh, looking at it, it looks like it's a very rough rose, kinda tattered, unique. Pick it up and it falls apart. Maddy took it apart once all by herself. I tried to stitch it together as I went (the second time) but it just wouldn't work for me. I know there are people who can do this, no problem... I can't. I don't know why, it may be the size of my hands (they're fairly big) or not being able to comprehend how to hold the piece properly so I could sew it together... it just didn't work.

So I decided to try felt. I've been working with felt a lot more lately - mostly as appliqués on the pouches I've been making - and feel really comfortable using it.

I think it looks great. The colour of the photograph doesn't do it justice - it was taken at a weird time in the morning where I couldn't get good light anywhere... but compared to the first flower, a vast improvement.

That's not to say I won't try fabric flowers again. I will, but I'll have to work out a method to do it that I can work with. I do like the concept of a tattered, messy-looking flower for some of my pieces, but for the time being, I'll stick with felt.