A brooch is a decorative composition or jewelry that can be attached to clothes with a pin. They can be of any shape, but usually small in size. But if you try to imagine a brooch, the image that most often comes to mind is a metal jewelry with complex details and exquisite beauty. But not all brooches are just that. These jewelry are made of precious stones and glass, beads, pieces of fabric, etc.
Brooch as a message
Brooches can have not only a decorative function, but also transmit information. For example, during the time of Louis XIV, at the court of this French king, a certain lady of the street came up with the idea of using her collection of accessories to inform the gentlemen of the place and time of the meeting. The idea was also liked by other noble people, which became one of the reasons for the spread of this type of jewelry. Then brooches from the attribute of luxury turn into a symbol of sophistication and aristocratic chic. Now they are used to emphasize the sophistication of the image and make it complete.
Materials for modern brooches
More recently, brooches made of crystals and precious stones were more common. Until now, many families have kept such jewelry in jewelry boxes. Textile brooches are popular with modern fashionistas. They are created manually using shreds of fabrics, felt and felt, bugles, beads and beads. DIY textile brooches can be made independently. They are suitable not only for decorating dresses, but also will transform a boring stole or a strict hat.
How to make a textile brooch in the form of a dragonfly?
First you need to decide on the style of your future accessory. What outfit will it be intended for? Will it be a daily decoration or an accessory for an evening dress? If you need a universal option, you should pay attention to boho-style textile brooches. Due to the features of this style, combining seemingly incompatible details, they are suitable for a variety of outfits. In vintage style, textile brooches are suitable for evening dresses and hat decorations. They are created most often on the basis of colors from fabrics of muted shades. A textile brooch can be used to transform simple types of clothes and accessories.
If you are not sure that you can make complex jewelry right away, start with the easy option - dragonfly brooches. It will take quite a bit of materials and time. Prepare a felt, beads, thread and needle, faux leather and a brooch clip.
Then follow these simple steps:
- Take two small pieces of felt of any color and, folding them together, and after - in half, cut the dragonfly wings.
- Collect several beads of different diameters on a thread to make an insect's body. For the head, use the largest bead or a ball of contrasting color.
- Take two small pieces of faux leather. Take the dragonfly wings, connect with the body. On the back, put a piece of skin, a clip on it, and then another piece of skin to fix it.
- Sew the items together.
You will get a very simple textile brooch. Additionally, it can be decorated with beads, beads or embroidery.
The second option is fixing the clamp
The most common way to create a textile brooch is to use flowers made from fabric or felt. The assembly principle of such a product is slightly different from the previous one:
- First, a flower or inflorescence is created separately. If the flower has a center, for example, like a poppy or a sunflower, it is embroidered with beads on a felt blank, to which then the petals are attached.
- As a basis, a piece of felt is also used. A clamp is glued to it, and then the fastener is closed with another layer of felt in which the slots are made.
- The edges are connected with a decorative seam. So the product on the reverse side looks more neat.
Brooch with flowers
To create flowers, you can use the kanzashi technique or any other to your taste. If you are a beginner and do not know how to make flowers, try the simplest options. For example, often strips of fabric are simply folded into a bundle, and then small rosettes are formed from them. It can be a silk ribbon or ordinary chintz. When folded, it will look unusual and vintage.
The kanzashi technique uses silk and satin ribbons and other types of fabric. First, round and triangular petals are created from shreds of a certain size. Silk ribbons are fastened with a flame, and cotton fabrics with thread. Flowers are collected from round and triangular petals using a glue gun.
Another option is to cut the petals of the desired shape from the satin ribbon, process them above the flame and collect them in a bud. You can take real flowers as a basis and see what kind of petals they have. Heat treatment allows you to give the blanks a different shape, bend them, so that the flower will look natural.
How to make a bouquet?
Textile brooches can be made in the form of bouquets. To do this, several finished flowers are assembled together on a felt substrate or on stems. For stems, an ordinary wire is suitable. It is convenient to use one end to add stamens to the middle of the color, and the other to fasten flowers to each other. If the stems are not too attractive, you can wrap them in a piece of cloth or use a green floral ribbon. Berries and other small decorative elements, such as metal leaves, are often added to bouquets. So the composition looks more complete.