Back in August, Etsy challenged me to spend £100 with UK sellers and write about my experiences at Super Cute Kawaii. One of the things I bought was a DIY felt flowers kit by The Handmade Florist. I tried it out last month and here’s what I thought.
I’ve had my eye on these kits for a while as I have a vase on my mantelpiece that’s usually empty as I don’t always buy fresh flowers (and when I do, I often don’t notice them enough until they’re dead). I had my wooden bumblebees in there and thought some fake flowers would be great for displaying them at the Etsy market too. I tried some paper flowers during the summer but I’m much more familiar with felt.
This kit comes with everything you need to make a whole bouquet of cottage flowers (19 in total, in 6 different flower types). While it looks really colourful, they’re all made from the same 7 colours of felt. There are some really nice touches, like the felt swatch card, full colour printed booklet and guide to laying out the templates so they all fit on the felt pieces.
It’s always tempting to jump in on your favourite item in the kit but I followed the instructions, which start you on the easiest and get more and more difficult. This is definitely the best way as I learned from my mistakes and my later flowers are much better. I would have liked a little more detail in some of the instructions, and a lot more photos (or a video to refer to) but I didn’t get frustrated or mess up anything too badly.
I bought a glue gun for this, which made it very quick and easy to assemble the flowers. The tedious part is cutting out all the tiny pieces from felt – there are A LOT. I have quite a lot of patience for this so I didn’t mind it. My least favourite part was wrapping the metal stalks in crepe tape but it does look better with it.
I was so pleased with the results, especially the pink gerbera daisies, crocuses and white stocks. Some of my flowers are a bit messy and wonky, but so are real flowers!
Overall, I loved this kit and want to make another one! I’ve been making things from felt for years, but I learned some new skills, made some beautiful flowers and have the templates and instructions to make more if I want to.
It would make a great gift for any crafter, but especially someone who’s stuck at home. I worked on this while jetlagged/sick after my Japan trip and the repetitive cutting and gluing were just what I needed, plus I got a bouquet at the end!
Have a look at The Handmade Florist on Etsy for more DIY felt flowers. They’re based in the UK but ship worldwide, and also have digital versions to download.
(Kit was paid for by Etsy but this post is not part of the sponsored agreement and all photos and words are my own)
