It totally worked, like totally - DIY Corsage with Scrunchie and Tropical Flowers

 I'm in the midst of composing a new relief and though the flower is clearly a vertical, the best bits are comprised in the middle. I'm struggling in the decision to work it as a landscape instead. When pencils aren't leading to yes yes yes, I take a pause. I'll catch up on some little things that have popped out of the creative recesses recently. 

My friend Mary's 80th birthday was last month. Knowing she'd be throughly garnished with leis and undoubtably a flower crown, I had the idea to make a corsage. I have made leis, flower crowns and boutonnieres but never a corage. On the way home from buying floral tape at the local hardware store (we don’t have a craft store anymore) I had the idea to make a scrunchie for the wrist part. Immediately following that thought, using the removable top of the cardamon spice jar I just finished off as the "frog". Supplies:

I cut a strip of fabric from the Sarahs Handmade Christmas project leftovers. I had elastic left from the custom mask making of 2020. The hardest part really was building the time machine to get me back to 1987.  After I sewed the rad fabric and turned it inside out, it was time for this like major safety pin on the end of the elastic strip to pull through the totally tubular fabric followed by sewing the ends together. And I had a stretchy bracelet for my fresh bouquet. 

I picked a number of little flowers from the garden. The big white ones (white ginger) though super delicate were used because they are also super fragrant. You smell that flower before you see it. They were the biggest gamble as the little stems are like tissue paper. At first it seemed like this was the best idea ever. But after wrapping the stems they no longer fit through the holes...so I started over and wrapped them after fitting through the holes which - double duty - prevented them from falling out the top when you turned it. Bitchin! However...I couldn't reach all of them without damaging others....I needed some glue. The only glue I could think of that dried fast was the hot glue gun. My mom was convinced that would cause the flowers to immediate wilt or fall apart. The internet read it would only work with a low heat gun and NOT straight from the gun. Ugh, that’s bogus and gag me with a spoon. But I figured the internet is never wrong and I should follow it blindly. Psych! I needed it to come straight from the gun and that gun was high heat, possibly “industrial”. Therefore, I proceeded to glue the crap out of it and it totally worked. Like Totally. Human 1 - A.I. 0

I planned to sew the plastic froggie to the scrunchie but I'd glued up all my holes, lame, soooo I glued that on too. Hey, It only needed to look rad for a few hours. I popped it in the fridge until we left for the party. I'm happy to report it made it to me putting it on her wrist! :) And an hour later it was still on..mostly. Not all the ginger petals made it through the dancing portion of the evening but I didn't expect them too. This is why they use roses and babies breath...much hardier stems to wrap. Happy Birthday to the totally Bodacious Mary! 

While pulling out the left over elastic, I looked through my leftover assortment of mask fabrics. Mostly whimsical because…2020. As my hair gets longer and longer, and outside gets hotter and hotter…it's put up more and more.  Maybe I need a scrunchie for "when I wash my face". Because it totally reminded me of the Ron Livingston episode of Sex and the City. I could have picked something understated and try to force chic something that's just not, in ANY fabric but I went another direction. It knows that it is and it's confident about it. Birdie was very interested in the scunchie making and watched every step very carefully as if she was going to make hers next. 

Studious Birdie

Renaissance Birdie