How to make singed organza flowers: a tutorial

As you can see from my shop, lately I have been having quite the organza bonanza. In other words, I really like making these singed-petaled flowers. I thought to document the process and share. So here goes...1. Begin with a synthetic fabric. There are many kinds of fabrics that will work. My favorite tends to be organza (the orange one). 2. Cut circles out of the fabrics. The circles do not have to be perfect, but they should be slightly bigger than you want your final flower to be. It will save you time to fold the material and cut out a bunch of circles at once.

3. Light the candle (fine, maybe this step doesn't deserve it's own number...). I like to use a tea light.

4. Take one of your cut out circles and hold it above the heat of the candle so that it begins to curl into itself. Getting the distance right will take a little practice.

If your petal catches on fire, just put it out, cut off the burnt part and try again.You should always test your fabric over the flame before cutting out lots and lots of circles.
Your petals should come out cup shaped just like this.
If you want less of a cup shape, hold them farther from the flame. For more of a cup shape you can go around the circumference of the petal a second time.
When you have a nice pile of petals and feel like you are getting high off of the smell of burnt synthetic fabrics, you are done!
Now stack the petals one inside the other to make the shape of a flower.
I like to pin my flower in place before hand stitching it together. You can stitch them to bobby pins, pin-backs, or a length of elastic to make a headband.
Get creative! For these flowers I added tulle and beads: I love how pretty they look when photographed together.

Here are a fewmore variations that I have come up with:

A heavily beaded center to invoke a rose:Layering different colors and kinds of fabric for a textured look: A bouquet with taffeta leaves:

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial. Feel free to leave questions should you have any.

Leeya