Sydney Albertini's Flower Sashes

2010-07-05T19:36:25Z

Sydney Albertini is an amazingly talented quilt maker, ceramicist, painter and fiber artist. She is also friend of our store and each time we see her walk in the door we are so excited to see what she has to show us! We love her fearless use of color so we asked her to share a textile project with Purl Bee readers. The Flower Sash project she decided on is classic Sydney: unique color combinations put together in a free, fun way to make something so unexpected and beautiful!

The point of this project is to pick out your own unique color palette. Don't be afraid to be adventurous! You will probably be surprised by how out-there you can get and still end up with something lovely.

Materials

To make one approximately 40-inch long sash with two flowers:

Three 1/4-yards of fabric that you like together, we'll call them Fabric A, B, and C in the pattern. Try to be adventurous in your combination!
Two felt balls made from a package of wool roving (you will have enough roving to make several balls). You can find instructions on how to make felt balls here.
Bright 100% cotton thread to contrast with your fabric

Special tools:

Pinking Shears

Cutting

All cutting is done with the pinking shears.

For the braided sash cut:

A 2-inch X 44-inch strip from Fabric A
A 2-inch X 30-inch strip from Fabric B
A 2-inch X 30-inch strip from Fabric C

For the large flower cut the following from whichever fabric you like:

A 3-inch X 17 1/2-inch piece for the outer layer of the flower
A 2-inch X 15-inch piece for the middle layer
A 1 1/2-inch by 13 1/2-inch piece for the innermost layer

For the smaller flower cut the following from whichever fabric you like:

A 2-inch X 15-inch piece for the outer layer
A 1 1/2-inch by 13 1/2-inch piece for the inner layer

Braiding

Iron the short ends of one of the long strips you cut of the braided sash 1/4-inch to the wrong side.

Then fold the long sides in 3/4-inch wrong sides together so that one side is on top of the other and none of the wrong side of the fabric is showing.

Using the contrasting thread zig zag stitch down the middle of the strip closing it and sewing down the fold in the process. One pinked edge will still be visible on the back side of the strip.

Repeat this for the other two long braid strips.

Lay the longest braid strip right side up and flat. Sew the shorter two braid strips it 10-inches from one of it's ends. Sew the three strips together thoroughly and don't be afraid to show off the contrasting thread!

Loosely braid the three strips together until the two shorter strips end.

Sew the ends of the shorter strips to the longer strip in the same manner.

Making the Flowers

Gather one of the long sides of the outer large flower piece together as shown above.

Keep gathering it along this side until you have a circular flower shape gathered in the middle.

Sew the gathered middle together to keep this shape in place.

Repeat this process with the middle layer piece and then sew that layer to the first.

And do the same with the innermost layer, sewing it the other two layers.

Sew one of the felt balls to the middle of the flower.

Trim each of the layers with the pinking shears until the flower looks like you want it to.

Repeat this process for the second smaller flower, which has only two layers.

Finishing the Sash

Sew the flowers on about 5-inches from the start of the braid (or wherever you like, really!)