Today we wanted to share with you a little sunshine in the form of something fun for you to make with what you have to hand at home. Valentino Roses are one of our longest running classes, where we make these gorgeous little silk flowers. We have been beavering away making the first London Embroidery School online class video which is now available on YouTube so we can make the roses alongside each other and talk you through our process. Follow the link to the class when you are ready, you will find the list of materials and instructions below in case you get stuck at any point. Remember to pause the video as you go along if you need some more time to keep pace with the steps. We hope you enjoy making valentino roses with us.
Things you will need:
Fabric for your rose (lightweight) – ideally Organza (50x15cm); other options- tuelle, chiffon, muslin anything lightweight and flexible (likely to be sheer)
Base Fabric (medium/heavy weight) – ideally a non stretch woven like cotton (fit to our hoop size) or felt (10x10cm)
Thread– Match colour to your lightweight fabric
Needle– Sharps or similar- size you feel comfortable threading up
Scissors- Fabric and Paper
Paper
Pencil
Ruler
Pins
Embroidery Hoop (optional)- regular hoop, table clamp frame, seat frame
Laying tool (optional)- mellor, stiletto, awl
Step 1: Drafting you Valentino Rose Petal Guide
- Draw 2 parallel lines measuring 6cm long each, 4.5cm apart
- Add a smooth curve to join the ends of the parallel lines together
- Cut around your template
Step 2: Prepping your Fabric
- Frame up your base fabric into your embroidery hoop and pop to one side for later (see Pro Tips: Framing up a Round Frame blog for further help) or
- If your using felt/fabric not on a hoop, just keep your base fabric to one side for later
- Take your lightweight fabric and fold the fabric along the length, each fold a little wider than your petal guide
- Fold to the end, min of 8 folds
- Pin your guide in the middle of your folded fabric
- Cut around the guide
- Remove the pins and guide
Step 3: Making the Petals
- Thread up your needle- comfortable length, single thread, knot the end
- Fold fabric cut out in half along the length of the petal
- Running stitch along the whole of the raw edge of the folded petal, starting in the corner of one side- along the curve, long straight edge, along the other curve and finishing at the other side corner
- Knot off the thread, cut off any excess thread ends
Step 4: Sewing your centre
- Thread up your needle, single thread, comfortable length, knot in the end
- Anchor your thread in the centre of your fabric with a couple of small stitches
- Take one of your prepared petals and roll it tightly along the stitched edge (stitched edge will be the bottom)
- Hold firmly with one hand and stitch onto the frame where you anchored your thread
- Stitch the whole way around the bud till it stands up right
Step 5: Sewing on the petals
- Starting close to where the downward slope of the bud finished, stitch your first petal down from the corner so that the petal sits close to the bud.
- Allow the body of the petal to face outwards from the bud so the raw edge is in towards the bud
- Stitch just above the running stitch line on the petals using pin tuck stitches (coming up and down through pretty much the same point
- Tuck any raw edges that escape in towards the centre of the flower so they become hidden
- Continue to the other corner
- Repeat for the rest of the petals, paying attention to the start and finish points of the petals so they look like they are in a nice place (so all your downward slopes aren’t on the same side of your flower
- This will change every time as the line your stitch around the bud becomes larger and larger as the flower builds
- On your final petal tuck the corner right into the previous petal so any raw edges are hidden
- You can grab a tiny bit of the previous petal and pull that down over the finish for an extra tidy look
Step 6:Finishing off
- If your centre looks a bit too proud, bring the needle up through the centre of the bud and go back down through the centre
- Gently pull the thread which will have caught a little of the body of the bud, pulling it down and making it less proud
- Adjust until your happy with the finished effect, then knot off your thread
- Remove from the frame and using a pencil on the back, mark a light circle outside the flower approx. 3mm clear of your flower and stitches
- Cut around the edge carefully with your scissors, keeping clear of your petals on the right side
- Tuck under the excess fabric (follow link for Pro Tips just on the finish), on the bottom side of the rose using small stitched to secure it to the underside of your rose, you will create some tucks as you go to gather the excess of the circle
- Stitch your now freestanding rose onto your chosen item, brooch pin, hair clip etc
Don’t be afraid to make some chances once you have mastered the techniques used for these roses, change the colour, size and fabric for different variations on the valentino rose.
We’d love to see how your roses went, so please share your makes with us, you can find us on Instagram @londonembschool, Facebook : London Embroidery School or email us: classes@embroidery.london
