DIY silk flowers

it was time to start on the flowers with the silk fabric i bought at the beginning of the year (in the colours of the handbag)... pale pink, pale blue, deep purple, light peach...
first i sewed strips of different widths... using a chopstick to turn them right side up was easy - silk fabric was v slippery...

abit of folding and french knots after french knots later... i had a bouquet's worth...
they looked ok... quite "bridal"... but abit too angular... so i started to think...
what if the blue one turned into... a carnation? (as mcduck said, a pompom)
so i decided to transform the existing ones into diff flowers... (haven't transformed the light peach yet)... and added the purple "poppy"...
the first purple poppy had burnt edges (to prevent silk fibers from fraying), which also lightened the colour of the edges (a good look)... but it was too much work to make...

here was what i did...

cut squares of purple silk...

the squares were further cut into 4s (diff sizes = ok)
squares into circles (ovals, of diff sizes)...
layered the circles from slightly larger to slightly smaller, 8 layers in all, staggered look... then sew them together with a cross in the middle...
pulled hard...
added centre beads...
added even more beads, 6 in total at centre...
tied with french knots at the back to secure... twisted...
scrunched up...
a not v scrunched up version here... i found out later that rubbing would give a more crumbly look and the edges would lightly fray...
not bad!