Fabric flowers for a wedding and a funeral

 The last month has been emotionally complicated, and that is really a reason why I haven't made any posts about Medieval Week or Mimicon, that took place the week after.

The theme for Medieval Week this year was "love" and the best evening was when we organised a bethrotal and bethrotal feast for our very good friends Mattis and Emma. In the Middle Ages, at least in Sweden, it was actually the bethrotal that was the most important event.

Their wedding was planned for the 29th of August, but this was our way to give them a great Medieval feast as well, together with people who wouldn't be there for the wedding.

Me and David went home on Saturday, and then on Monday we got the news that the wonderful Abigail had passed away on early Monday morning, just 17 years old. Devastating news, of course the most for her family, but the whole family are really the core of the group. It was really strange knowing that our hugging goodbye on Friday evening was in fact a goodbye for much more than until the next sewing meeting or group get together.

As mentioned the wedding was on the 29th, and I had already planned to dye my hair purple to match my folk costume that I was going to wear, and then came the news of the funeral. The funeral was going to be on the first Friday after the wedding, and Abi's favorite colours were black and purple so we were welcome to wear purple for the funeral. 

I then also decided if I had something at home that I could make into accessories, and I started with making some fabric flowers in purple fabric that I found at home.

I started with ripping a strip of fabric, this is a polyester taffeta.

I folded the strip together until it was the width of a petal.

I cut it into a petal shape, making sure to keep the sides together.

Here is the full strip. I also zinged the edges over a tealight to stop them from frying.

Then I sewed a gathering thread along the straight edge and gathered it all together.

I sewed across the bottom of the gathered strip to shape it.

I found that I had these pearls attached to wires in my bead/pearl box. I put one in the middle of each flower, but sticking it through the fabric.

I made a little loop from the wire on the backside, so that I had something I could attach a hairpin to.

Here are the finished flowers. The bottom one was made from a 75 cm strip, and that as almost too big. The top flowers are made from cutting a similar strip in half. The bottom and the top left flowers were also just randomly gathered, but the top right one I worked a bit more with shaping the petals when I gathered them, and I think that one was the best.

For the wedding I put all three flowers in my hair. I didn't want to wear the traditional cap, I wanted something fun with my hair I also didn't wear traditional shoes but wore purple shoes as well.

For the funeral David put one of the flowers on his lapel. 

It was quite hard working on the flowers knowing that they were for both a wedding and funeral, but it also felt very fitting to make and wear them for both occasions. Life is full of joy and sorrow, and both these occasions will be connected to Abi.

And here is a photo of Emma and Mattis and I hope they will have a long and wonderful marriage.