Monday 17 June 2013

Today's project: Making a flower crown


So some of you will be lucky enough to be going to a festival this year, and one of my favourite things about summer fashion is the influx of hippy festival wear - big flowery maxi skirts, long printed tees and cute accessories. I particularly love flower crowns, although I'm pretty fussy. For our wedding I've been looking for a bit of a boho alternative to The Veil as I just can't seem to find the right kind of veil to go with my dress. Those of you who follow me on Pinterest might have noticed quite a few floral crowns on my Boho Wedding board, but a lot of the ones I have found in the UK for brides have been, well.. a bit big. I'm a plus size girl, and my dress is kind of busy, so the last thing I want is to be wearing half a garden on my head. 

Cue many, many nights of looking fervently on Etsy and high street websites for a crown that was pretty, purple, not too big and not a metal headband. Every time I found one I liked, it was too expensive, or it wasn't quite perfect. (You know how it is). In the end, as with many of the projects I have taken on board over the past few months, I started to think maybe I should just make one of my own.

I already have a stash of floral wire from making the buttonholes/corsages/bouquets, so I got myself some brown floral tape and some flowers from eBay, which came to just under £5.00. Bargain!

This, I promise, is all you really need:


  1. Floral wire
  2. Brown floral tape
  3. Wire cutters/pliers
  4. Artificial flowers of choice
  5. Ribbon of choice
First you want to measure how big you need the crown to be. As I was using relatively small wires, I attached three together so it would be long enough to wrap almost the whole way around my head (remember there will be a gap where the ribbon is tied, so it doesn't need to actually meet at the back). Be sure you have a bit of extra length at each end to loop the wire back on itself so you have somewhere to attach the ribbon. 

Wrap the length of wire in brown floral tape, several times over so it's nice and thick. I then made a second, slightly shorter length of wire covered in brown floral tape. I wrapped one end of the shorter wire around the base of the crown, just next to the loop and then weaved it up and down around the crown, like this:



Then just gently push the bottom wire of the crown out a little bit opposite each loop so you have even almond-shaped loops along the length of the crown. Now you can start attaching the flowers! I took each flower head off of the stalks they came on and inserted a small length of floral wire up the stem, making a small loop at the top of the wire to help secure it. Then I just wrapped them in brown floral wire and wrapped the flowers around the crown wherever I thought they looked good. This is the most time-consuming part but also the most rewarding as you really start to see everything coming together. 


When you are happy with the flowers, simply tie a length of ribbon through the loops at the back and pop it on your head! Instant festival chic for beauties on a budget, and perfect for summer weddings. You can use whichever flowers you like to fit your theme, in whichever colours you like. You could even thread pearls or beads around the crown too for a little added sparkle! 

Here's how it looks on:


Obviously you can make them as big or as small as you like, by adding bigger flowers or more wires. These would make great gifts for flower girls or younger bridesmaids too. Have fun crafting! :-)




1 comments:

Julie said...

This looks beautiful Claire, well done xx

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