DIY Vintage Brooch Bouquet - Tutorial Part 4

I have finally finished my niece’s brooch bouquet. The last step was the bouquet handle. I wanted to use a vintage handkerchief and my mother fortunately had one from my grandmother that was bordered in lace and glass beads. It was perfect for the handle.

I went ahead and finished taping my bouquet handle. I put some more green tape around it in order to try to make it similar in size the whole way down the handle and then I wrapped white tape around that. The reason I wanted to finish with white tape is because my hankie is cream colored and I didn’t want the green tape showing through.

I assembled everything I would need – the bouquet, the hankie, some fusible interfacing, and red velvet buttons (which will tie in with other velvet pieces that will be used as part of the wedding decor).

I folded down my hankie at the top, because I wanted to have a border there. Then I measured and cut my interface to the size of the hankie minus the border. I then ironed the interface to the hankie.

I then pinned my hankie where the handle would go. To do this, I worked with the hankie on the handle until I figured out exactly where I wanted everything placed and marked it with two pins at the top. I then pulled it off and pinned it down the hankie where the handle would go.

I sewed two seams on the hankie where I had marked it with pins. I did this on my sewing machine. Then, I put the hankie on the handle.

I then wrapped the hankie around the handle and marked with a pencil where I would place my buttons. I planned to use the lace as my button holes so that was my guide for the buttons. Next, I sewed on the buttons where I had my marks.

I buttoned the hankie before putting it on the handle. It was just easier that way. And here is the finished bouquet.

Link to Part 1

Link to Part 2

Link to Part 3

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DIY Vintage Brooch Bouquet - Tutorial Part 3

My niece requested ostrich feathers somewhere in her bouquet because her dress has some ostrich feathers on the bottom. So, I bought an ostrich feather trim from an Etsy seller. I placed the trim - which measures 6" long - on the sticky side of a piece of green tape that is about 2" longer than the trim on both ends. The tape is Scotch plastic tape.

I turned the bouquet upside down and started rolling the tape with trim around the top of the bouquet, right below the jewelry. I had to be really careful because the feathers kept getting stuck to the tape as I wrapped it around and also wanted to hang up in the jewelry. I pulled as tight as I could while I was wrapping the tape around.

My next step was to take the red hydrangeas which were the next layer and position them around the bouquet under the feathers. Again, I worked with the bouquet upside down, because I wanted the feathers to stay where they were and it was easier to keep them that way from an upside down position.

I held the flowers in position and took my green tape and started wrapping it around. Again, I pulled it as tightly as I could. This was difficult at times because I was trying to hold the flowers in position with one hand and wrap with the other. The tape doesn't look as smooth as it could but I'm going to cover it anyway.

I'm going to go back and wrap the stems again and go all the way down to the bottom. But I'm still working on ideas for what will cover the bouquet handle and so will go back and do that as part of the final step.

Here is the bouquet with feathers and flowers attached.

Link to Tutorial Part 1

Link to Tutorial Part 2

Link to Tutorial Part 4

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