Kanzashi Fabric Flower Necklace

While I was in the middle of making my flower corsage necklace the copy of Kanzashi in Bloom that I had ordered arrived. I love the way these Kanzashi flowers are made up from individual petals, a bit like the Betz White felt poinsettias I made before Christmas. The book is really easy to follow and shows how to make three different petal styles from folded fabric squares, and combine them into all kinds of beautiful flowers.

After trying out all the petal styles I was itching to make something proper so decided to have a go at a necklace using Kanzashi flowers and the same fabric beads I made before. The fabric is plain old dotty quilting cotton from Jo-Ann's and the buttons are some gorgeous old mother of pearl ones from Mum's button box.

The fabric beads were made from a 2.5" strips, folded to 1" wide and cut into 2.5" pieces. It's not easy to tell from this photo but the flower on the left is bigger than the other two. The large Kanzashi is made from 3" squares and the two small ones from 2.5". I added small round pearly beads (left over from our wedding favours) between the fabric beads. This allows the necklace to curve better so I could have it shorter and fastened with a clasp.