Making a Sunflower Bouquet Headpiece

Sunflowers are one of my favorite flowers.They are such a joy to look at! When I recently traveled to my hometown there were hundreds of them in the field and I got inspired to create something with them.

I wanted to participate in the Mad Hatter contest so that's how this headpiece came to life.

I love the way it turned out and I want to show you how I made it.

Let's get started!

1. Yellow satin ribbon - 40 mm wide
2. Dark brown satin ribbon - 40 mm wide
3. A gift card or playing card
4. A lighter
5. Double sided tape
6. Skewers
7. Hot glue gun
8. Dark blue velvet fabric
9. Styrofoam balls
10. Cardstock
11. Scissors

Everything you see in this headpiece is made from scratch - including the beautiful sunflowers.

Making the sunflowers is very easy but it takes time and patience - so be prepared!

Start making the sunflower petals by taking a gift card and wrap the yellow satin ribbon around it a couple of times.Take the wrapped ribbon out of the card and cut on both sides - you now have the pieces you are going to use to create the petals.

Take one piece,fold it in half and cut it diagonally in the upper part.

Using a lighter gently light the diagonal line and press with your fingers.For safety reasons in order to prevent burning yourself you can use gloves.

Next,unfold the petal and fold the two lower parts to the middle.Seal everything by burning the line with a lighter.Follow the video for a more detailed instruction.

Your petal is ready.

Each sunflower has around 14-16 petals,so make as many as you can.

The next step is to make the sunflower center.

Take your dark brown satin ribbon and cut a 80 cm long strip.Place it in a flat surface and put double sided tape along the lower part of your strip.Remove the double sided tape's paper and fold the ribbon strip in half to glue it in place.

Next,start cutting little lines along the whole strip with scissors to create a fringe.

The final step is to glue the strip to the skewer.Take your hot glue gun and apply a small amount of glue.Place the skewer on top of it and hold until it's securely glued.Start rolling the brown strip around and continue gluing.

Your sunflower center is ready.

Once you have the two main components of your sunflower it is time to make the sunflowers.

Apply a small amount of hot glue to the sunflower center and place the petals one by one next to each other.Once the first row is ready apply the glue between two petals for the second row to have a more realistic looking flower.

Repeat this process until you have 10-12 sunflowers.

Start by measuring how big you need to make the base - use a measuring tape to go around your head.If you don't have that you can use a bowl as a guide.

Once you have the measurements cut two strips of cardstock and glue them together to make a ring.You can also cut a single long strip and glue it but I worked with what I had.

Next,cut 4 pieces of cardstock and attach them to the ring you just made to achieve a dome shape and finish the base of the headpiece.

You need to attach the sunflowers somewhere,right?

Well then take some styrofoam balls and cut them in half.Carve some of the inside to make each ball fit better.

Attach the styrofoam to the base of the headpiece using a hot glue gun.

Once your base is ready take your fabric and cover the inside of the dome.Glue everything in place with hot glue.

Cut off any excess fabric and glue any hanging pieces down.

Cut the skewers to a shorter length using a wire cutter.

Start arranging your bouquet of sunflowers by poking holes on the fabric and pressing them into the styrofoam.

Since there is only cardstock at the front you can't poke holes there.Cut off the skewers of the two sunflowers that are left and glue them down to the front row using hot glue.

This step is optional however it made the process of wrapping the bouquet with fabric later very easy.

Take another piece of styrofoam (I used the styrofoam that the satin ribbon was wrapped around) and glue it to the top of the bouquet.

Lay your headpiece on top of the fabric.Start wrapping the velvet around to resemble the bouquet shape.Once you are happy with it glue the fabric to the styrofoam cylinder.

Cut off any excess fabric using scissors.

Cut a strip of fabric from the leftovers and wrap it around the styrofoam cylinder.Attach everything using hot glue.

Since this project was a bit of an experiment here are some side notes:

1. The headpiece fits nicely and it is secure however if you want you can attach it to a metal headband for even more stability
2. You can add some stems to the styrofoam cylinder and make the bouquet even more realistic - just use fake flower stems

Voila!

You can now wear this headpiece and light up any room you enter with the yellow beauties.It's not an everyday hat you can put on but it would be the perfect accessorie for a Spring Festival or even Haloween.

Thank you for reading this Instructable!