More wedding flower progress!  This weekend there was an impromptu breakfast visit from Chris and Julia Eppstein, and they stayed to help with the wedding crafting.  Chris cut many many circles of fabric, as did Julia, and Julia constructed many lovely peonies.  We went from 0 peonies at the beginning of the day, to 15 at the end!

Since I kind of invented the peony process, I thought I’d share the steps:

1. Cut a bazillion fabric circles.  You should be using synthetic fabrics – which is great for the pocketbook.  Think rayons and taffetas and polyesters. I like sparklies, and it’s easiest to find what I want in the “fancies” section of the fabric store.  Cut the circles in varying sizes, as small as a nickel and as big as a coffee cup.
2. Burn the edges of the circles.  You’ll find that the circles shrink up and kind of make a little cup.  Additionally, the edges darken and look really pretty.
3. Stack 9 circles in varying sizes and colors to get a look you’re happy with
4. Sew them together.
5. Take a little eyelash yarn (I use between 1-2 inches) and sew it into the middle.  It will look like stamens
6. Take some beads or a shiny button, or pretty much anything, and sew that into the middle too, to complete your look.
7. Add a wire stem to the back.

Thank you to the Eppsteins for all your help, and to Michelle Marovich for encouraging me to experiment with this design!