TudorRose-SavvySeams

7/30/2019 TudorRose-SavvySeams

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SavvySeams.com's Tudor Rose Tutorial Remix

Quite a while ago I typed up a little post about some Tudor Rose purses I hadmade. The original pattern came from a now defunct website calledSavvySeams.com. I did not draft this pattern, but I love it so very much. It shouldnot be lost to the world. What remains of SavvySeams.com can be seen through aweb archive service. If you look HERE you'll see what remains of the original pattern and may notice that many of the photos are gone. There is a

printable text-only document still avaible HERE . The PDF file for the pattern piecesis HERE or try http://web.archive.org/web/20070316122815/http://www.savvyseams.com/bags/flower.pdf

You can see a little gallery of photos of the flower I made for this tutorial HERE .I gathered some historical information and photos about the Tudor Rose HERE .
http://ricochetandaway.blogspot.com/2011/08/tudor-rose-purse.htmlhttp://web.archive.org/web/20070316123032/http:/www.savvyseams.com/bags/flower.phphttp://web.archive.org/web/20070102061115/http:/www.savvyseams.com/bags/flowertext.txthttp://web.archive.org/web/20070316122815/http:/www.savvyseams.com/bags/flower.pdfhttp://web.archive.org/web/20070316122815/http:/www.savvyseams.com/bags/flower.pdfhttp://web.archive.org/web/20070316122815/http:/www.savvyseams.com/bags/flower.pdfhttp://web.archive.org/web/20070316122815/http:/www.savvyseams.com/bags/flower.pdfhttp://www.ricochetandaway.blogspot.com/2011/12/tudor-rose-to-remember.htmlhttp://www.ricochetandaway.blogspot.com/2011/12/tudor-rose-history-and-gallery-of.htmlhttp://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xXFn5kPMhOU/TuEID5ySDCI/AAAAAAAABaA/bJHYUbw6ZRw/s1600/title-a.jpghttp://web.archive.org/web/20070316123032/http:/www.savvyseams.com/bags/flower.phphttp://web.archive.org/web/20070102061115/http:/www.savvyseams.com/bags/flowertext.txthttp://web.archive.org/web/20070316122815/http:/www.savvyseams.com/bags/flower.pdfhttp://web.archive.org/web/20070316122815/http:/www.savvyseams.com/bags/flower.pdfhttp://web.archive.org/web/20070316122815/http:/www.savvyseams.com/bags/flower.pdfhttp://www.ricochetandaway.blogspot.com/2011/12/tudor-rose-to-remember.htmlhttp://www.ricochetandaway.blogspot.com/2011/12/tudor-rose-history-and-gallery-of.htmlhttp://ricochetandaway.blogspot.com/2011/08/tudor-rose-purse.html


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Here's my remix of the flower portion of the tutorial:

Getting Started:Choosing fabric. The fabric should be medium to heavy weight. If you use lightweight fabric,you'll need to apply a lightweight fusible interfacing.

The flower is quite complex and gorgeous on it's own. I suggest avoidingstrong prints that may distract from the details of the flower itself. Each leaf and petal has a front and a back. Consider splurging on the frontfabric and going cheap on the backs. How much fabric? A bit more than a yard. I can break it down into petalsand leaves or fronts and backs if you wish.Other supplies. You'll need the basic machine sewing supplies: coordinating thread,scissors, iron, etc. You'll also need to do some hand sewing so be sure you have a needle andthread on hand. Batting or wadding. I used a medium thick synthetic quilting batting. I thinka cotton or poly-blend would work as well. If you have some freezer paper, I'd suggest using it for your pattern pieces. The flower's center requires a base of some kind. I use plastic canvas, butany plastic may work. The lids from margarine tubs or coffee cans would work. Also, file folders work great. I haven't tried it, but peltex or timetex would probablywork as well.

First, I cut out the fabric:
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There are only 4 differentpattern pieces the worry aboutfor this flower. In truth, what

I've dubbed "leaves" areactually sepals or tiny petals.

For simplicity's sake I'm stickingwith petals and leaves . You

will find the PDF pattern HERE .

You'll need to cut out 10 of each pattern piece from your fabric.

I am a huge fan of using freezer paper for my patterns. I've actually

cut out 10 of each pattern piece.That way I have a single freezer

paper pattern piece to match every piece of fabric I will cut out.

Freezer paper rocks because:1. I avoid having to traceor transfer each pattern piece10 times. I just iron thefreezer paper onto my fabricand cut around it.

2. I can easily keep track of how many pieces I need tocut out.3. I avoid wasting fabric.I know without a doubt if I

have enough fabric for every piece because I cut. Also, Ican arrange and rearrange thefreezer paper until I'm sure I'mnot wasting any fabric.

(You might have guessed from the picturethat I am upcycling a pair of pants to use for the petals.)
http://web.archive.org/web/20070316122815/www.savvyseams.com/bags/flower.pdfhttp://web.archive.org/web/20070316122815/www.savvyseams.com/bags/flower.pdf


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Second, I make the leaves:For the leaves, simply match up and

pin the fronts and backs of every leaf right-sides together. There will be 5small and 5 large leaves in all. For the leaves in this tutorial, the backsare a tan fake-suede that used to be a

bed skirt. For the fronts I'm using acream on white crocodile print poly

blend with a fuzzy flannel backing. I picked that up at thrift store--I haveno idea what you'd call it.
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Stitch. After pinning, it's just a matter of stitching around the edges with a .5" seamallowance, leaving an opening at the bottom. I sew the leaves in a continuous line of stitching to save some time. That's a neat quilter's trick I and using more and more.

Clip. The pointy corners need to be trimmed so the tips of leaves are nice and sharpwhen you turn them inside out.

Turn. I use a wooden dowel to help me turn the leaves inside out. Be careful not to poke through the seams or damage the fabric. Press each leaf nice and flat.

Top-stitch. I chose a decorative machine stitch to add a bit of detail to my leaves.

Third, I make the petals:
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Pin. The petals require a bit of batting as well as the fronts and backs. The batting pieces should be trimmed off at the bottom about 2 inches. This will decrease the bulk we don't want want in the center of the flower. This is the best way to pin your petalstogether: Lay your back piece right-side-up. Lay your front piece on top, right side-

side-down. Lay your batting on the very top. Pin. If you pin that order, the petal willlook nice and poofy when you turn it.

Stitch. Stitch around the petals using a .5" seam allowance and leaving a nice bigopening at the bottom for turning. Don't bother trimming the batting near the seams.The bulk of batting in seam allowances will help boost the dimensions of the petals.

Turn. Carefully turn and gently press each petal.Top-Stitch. I have top-stitched the petals a multitude of different ways. You cansee examples of that HERE . When I keep my top-stitches at least 1-1.5 inches awayfrom the edge of the petals, the petals get a nice poofy 3-D effect.

The 5 large petals and the 5 small petals are sewn together in rings following thesesteps:

1. Trim the bottoms off of the petals as shown with the red lines in thediagram. Don't get too fussy about this step. The center is covered up anywayso this step is mainly for reducing bulk. I trimmed off nearly 2 inches from eachlarge petals and about 1 inch from each small petal.2. Arrange 5 same-sized petals until you're happy with how they look and

just pin together 2 adjacent petals.3. Using your widest zig-zag stitch, sew together the 2 petals where their edges meet up. Take a look at the blue zig-zags I've drawn in the diagram to geta better idea. Stitch about 3 inches from the bottoms of the petals.4. Take your stitched petals back to their friends and pin one more on to thechain. Repeat the zig-zag stitching for the remaining petals until you have acomplete ring of petals.
http://ricochetandaway.blogspot.com/2011/08/tudor-rose-purse.htmlhttp://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6MuTmuMo_-U/TtfBcg3agvI/AAAAAAAABRo/DqRrI1MhsQk/s1600/13-collage.jpghttp://ricochetandaway.blogspot.com/2011/08/tudor-rose-purse.html


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5. The last step is to zig-zag around the center of the ring to finish off all theraw edges.

Fourth, attach the leaves to thepetals:

This is how you attach the leaves:1. Take your ring of large petals and flip it over face-down. Arrange thelarge leaves on the back, right-side-down, as shown. Were you wondering whythe large leaves had the "V" shape cut into the bottom edge? Well, when you

arrange the leaves as shown, the "Vs" create a perfect(ish) pentagon.Ultimately, the large leaves peek out between and behind the large petals. I like
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my leaves to extend just beyond the height of the petals. Flip it over andexperiment with placement until you're happy with the look of it.2. When you're sure about the placement, pin the large leaves in place. Iused low-tack masking tape because it'll hold them down perfectly and it won't

get caught on anything like pins sometimes do. Flip it over, right-side-up, andsew a straight stitch right over the zig-zags that hold together each petal. Thedotted lines in the diagram show you where the straight stitch will show throughon the back.3. The small leaves need to be pinned as shown. Play with the arrangement,laying the ring of small petals on top, until you're happy with the placement.4. The ends of the leaves are sewn on as shown.

Pin the small ring of petals on top and stitch as shown. Now all that's left is the center

piece!

Final step is making the center:

The center of this Tudor Rose is finished with a large button detailed with canadiansmocking. I found a great canadian smocking tutorial right HERE . It's easier than youthink, I promise! Once you read through the tutorial, you'll find you need to mark a gridon the reverse of your fabric. What I do is take a piece of very thin/feather-weightfusible interfacing and place it on my cardboard fabric cutting board which has a 1 inch

grid. I can then mark the interfacing with a marker and fuse it to the back of a 14"square of fabric. The center picture shows what the back side looks like when all the
http://patchworkunderground.com/canadian-smocking-tutorial/http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/productdetail.jsp;jsessionid=6D4C64C1520DD883DB6BB335859BF070.a4p2?CATID=cat2699&PRODID=prd48124http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G1vR4-mUT2c/TtkphiNjrgI/AAAAAAAABXI/T3gS-WUz6Wc/s1600/17collage.jpghttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TT8t2xDdlKc/TtkpaUB4m-I/AAAAAAAABXA/Lvgv9sP36DU/s1600/16-small+flower+attached.jpghttp://patchworkunderground.com/canadian-smocking-tutorial/http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/productdetail.jsp;jsessionid=6D4C64C1520DD883DB6BB335859BF070.a4p2?CATID=cat2699&PRODID=prd48124


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smocking has been completed. I used the bright orange thread only because it shows up better for the photos. Once you flip it over, you can see the cool basket weave pattern.

It looks so cool, right?

Have you ever heard of plastic canvas? It's a fairly common staple at most craft stores.Usually it is used for yarn crafts like tissue box covers and some holiday decorations.You can see a bunch of traditional plastic canvas crafts HERE . I like to use it for

making bags. It makes a nice stiff, yet breathable reinforcement for structured bags. Tomake the big button, I cut out a circle of canvas and wrapped the smocked fabric aroundit. You can see the back looks pretty ugly, but no one will ever see it, right? Thefinished button always reminds of the lattice crust of cherry pie. Once you hand stitchthe button to the center of the petal rings, you're done!

Other tips and such: If you scroll back up and check out the pics of my petals and leaves, you'llnotice some irregularities. Some of the seams are wonky, the shapes are not allperfectly uniform. I'm fine with those little defects. When I look at my finishedproject, I don't notice that my top-stitching isn't perfectly even or that my leavesaren't absolutely symmetrical. For me, that's a major plus to this complicatedpattern. It's not very fussy and therefore perfect for a lazy sewer like myself! In my experience, the most tedious part of this project is cutting the fabric.There are 40 pieces for the petals and leaves, 10 pieces of batting, and then you

have the center. The sewing part goes by very quickly, I promise. The smocking in the center looks best when done in solid-colored fabric. I

use a 1 inch grid for my smocking, but a larger grid would still look cool and be lesswork. I wouldn't recommend going any smaller. Depending on the weight of your fabrics, your finished project could getpretty heavy. Consider the weight of your flower when choosing what type of bagor pillow you choose to attach it to. The original pattern calls for a flower on eachside of the bag. I made one double-flowered bag and while the person I made it for was very pleased, I wouldn't want to carry a bag that was so heavy.

http://www.ricochetandaway.blogspot.com.ar/2011/12/savvyseamscoms-tudor-rose-tutorial.html
http://pinterest.com/rikkaw/plastic-canvas/http://www.ricochetandaway.blogspot.com.ar/2011/12/savvyseamscoms-tudor-rose-tutorial.htmlhttp://www.ricochetandaway.blogspot.com.ar/2011/12/savvyseamscoms-tudor-rose-tutorial.htmlhttp://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uHzqkiLmUQg/Ttkpiz7TuaI/AAAAAAAABXQ/Spi-AbEH1Fw/s1600/18collage.jpghttp://pinterest.com/rikkaw/plastic-canvas/http://www.ricochetandaway.blogspot.com.ar/2011/12/savvyseamscoms-tudor-rose-tutorial.htmlhttp://www.ricochetandaway.blogspot.com.ar/2011/12/savvyseamscoms-tudor-rose-tutorial.html

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