Making Millinery Flowers

My passion with flowers doesn't stop in the garden. I have also been harboring a serious millinery flower obsession for as long as I can remember. As a child, I used to go to the dime store and buy all sorts of velvet flowers, fruits and berries. It was the 1970s and things like that were in abundance. Sadly millinery flowers that have the kind of quality of yester-year are very, very scarce. In fact the whole artificial flower business is quite elusive. Most artificial flowers that are readily available are mass produced in the Far East and are made from cheap polyester and come in garish colors. There are places that sell good quality millinery flowers, but they are so traditional. I want something unique, funky and kinda quirky. When I do find some old millinery flower stock though, I find it very hard to part with it.

Lately I have been busying myself with trying to make some of my own. These are some of my first attempts. Try not to laugh. They are 'flat' and 'new' looking and aren't really 'there' for me. I think I will try to dye some of my own fabrics next. I am also ordering a set of heat flower presses which will hopefully give future flowers that I make a more 3-D appearance. I want my 'new' flowers to look old and vintage...so onward and upwards with experimenting!

Meanwhile...these flowers may just end up on a fascinator base with some other embellishments...so stay tuned.

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