Making silk flowers using French techniques.

Making artificial flowers in silk fabric is almost a lost art. However, it is being kept alive by milliners who are interested in creating customized decorations for hats. I learned this technique in Melbourne at the 2010 conference of the Millinery Association of Australia (www.millineryaustralia.org). We learned how to prepare silk fabric, patterning, tooling and construction of artificial flowers. Recently I was asked to make some silk flower pins for an ambassadors of the National Year of Reading. The National Year of reading aims to encouraging and improving literacy in the Australian community through programs in partnership with the library community www.love2read.org.au

There are some great silk flower kits out there and I would like to thank Waltraud Reiner for her excellent modern reference materials (Torb & Reiner) Her kits helped me to remember what I had learned at the millinery conference.  I am fortunate to own a couple of vintage pattern books that are no longer available. These helped me decide how to design and construct the daisy pins. This required some thought as the vintage pattern books insisted on using wool looped into a tight ball for the centers. I decided to go with a flat center instead. As it would look like the love to read logo daisy my clients wanted.  Thanks goes  to Angela of www.jaspercatdesigns.com for her suggestions about how to finish the pins. It is great to have other millinery friends to able to chat about problems and come up with solutions. If you are looking for vintage pattern books you could try my friend Bernadette of www.needlewitch.com.au who helped me with finding reference material on making silk flowers.