Felt Bouquet Redux

For the past couple of months, I've been working on a bridal bouquet for my great-niece. Thought I'd share a few of the pics taken on the way to a finished bouquet.

It's been an extended process with lots of photos posted on Facebook for approval as she lives in Pennsylvania and we're in Texas. Here are a couple of shots of the beginning flowers, the tutes for which I found all over the 'net. Amazing what you can find from talented bloggers out there!

Her great-grandmother (my MIL) died before Elizabeth was born but I had some small doilies Mum crocheted and used a few in the bouquet.

The one on the left was a triple flower doily folded into a three-layered single flower. I used a felted ball as the center for it and for the one on the right, which was a square ruffled into a flower shape. I was careful not to ruin the pieces; they can still be unstitched back to their beginning shapes.

This is another ruffled square; I used a bead center on it.

One of my dry run photos. Eliza preferred the bouquet without greenery so I deleted them in the final bouquet.

The penultimate audition shot. Bridesmaid dresses are black with begonia sashes so I used both black and begonia as accent colors with several shades of light pink as well.

She wanted burlap and lace as a handle wrap. I picked up burlap ribbon and crochet lace from Walmart, which is pretty much my only crafting supply source out here in the country. That and the internet. Thank God for Etsy!

I removed the original lace trim from the ribbon, leaving a raveled edge, and stitched two layers of the crochet lace onto the burlap with a chain stitch, making a 2-edged lace overlay.

Here I wrapped the handle with a thin felt for softness. The felt came from a roll I found at a thrift store; it's not wool and fairly thin so I ended up using four layers.

Here's the burlap and lace pinned onto the handle, final audition shot.

The completed bouquet. As accent, I used a brooch also found at a thrift shop. 

I really like the end result. Hope she does too.