Fabric Origami

When I get bored at work I inevitably end up folding bits of paper into interesting and fun shapes. As I've mentioned before of this blog, I really like doing Origami, even I'm not the best person in the world at it.

My new favourite thing to make are these flowers:




And on Friday, when I was really quite bored at work, I had the notion that I could make these out of fabric. And so, that's what I spent my weekend doing! (Apologies for the rubbish phone pics!)




This was my first attempt, and although I liked the way it came out, I really wasn't happy with the raw edges, or the way I'd sewn it together.

A quick trip to Hobbycraft later for invisible thread and elastic, and this was my second attempt:



It's hemmed with invisible thread, and I liked it much better.

But then I had another idea - what about multicoloured flowers?!




I turned these two into hairbands - as you can see, one is on my head! As well as sewing the two fabric colours together, these two also have interfacing in the middle - I wondered if it would help them keep their shape, but I actually think it makes them too bulky and I don't think they fold right.

I've made one more of these too - a plain black one for my hair, which the boyfriend tells me is pretty, but I'm undecided about. If we get decent enough light today I'll take some pictures!

I'm not sure they can be technically called origami as they're sewn together to help them keep their shape, but they do stay up and together without the sewing! And now I know it works I'm thinking of trying to make things using all the other Origami patterns I know!

I've looked at Etsy this morning, and it seems like no one else is selling flowers like these, which is exciting for me, as I think this is the first original thing I've ever come up with. I want to open a shop to sell them in, different to Dria's Sock Shop, but I need a name - if someone can help me think of one, I'll send them an origami flower - either on elastic or on a brooch back!

EDITED TO ADD: I'm keeping this open until 9pm on Saturday (the 21st August). I'd really like a new shop name by then! So please keep coming up with ideas!