Silk Petal Wisteria/Lilac, Ombre Flower

These lovely flowers are created for an outdoor festival in Spring!

Time per flower bunch: Approximately 10-20 minutes.
Level of difficulty: Easy.
Awesomeness factor: Through the roof.

These flowers are made from silk petals, but you could make them using tissue paper or construction paper! I chose the silk for longevity reasons. Paper might get crunched an scrunched beyond recognition.

The flower bunch on the far right is the one I create in this tutorial.

Best of luck to you! Let me see what you create!

-Silk Petals (Approximately 200-400 per bunch, depending on how you thread them and fluff them out) I found mine on Amazon.
-Scissors
-Thread (a thicker thread for coats would be good. Something thin could be brittle and break easily)
-Long sharp needle
-Paperclip (one per bunch)

These instructions yield one cluster of wisteria measuring about 15 inches from head to tip.

Cut two pieces of thread measuring about 30 inches each.
Fold one of the pieces of thread in half and tie it to the 2nd piece of thread a third of the way up from the end.
Separate the thread on a table in front of you with one strand to the left, knot in the middle, and the three other strands to your right. Now it's time to thread the first part.

The knot signifies the middle of the wisteria. You will be threading from the middle to the lowest point on the flower, so think about your color combinations if you are doing an ombre effect. For example, my flowers are white at the top and run into deep purples and blues at the bottom. The first petals I thread here are mid range colors and as I go on with this step, I thread darker colors.

Run your needle through a petal or two. By folding the petal into halves or fourths, you are creating a smaller effect and a tighter effect of the flowers.Keep threading the petals until you reach about 2 to 4 inches of thread left. At this point, thread one last petal to signify the tip. Run your needle through the petal multiple times to create a loop and knot to tie off the petals.

Congrats! You're halfway done!

If you hold up the thread, you'll see the effect that your flower will have! You've just created the tapered portion of the flower. Now, it's time to create the bulk, the upper half!

Lay out the three strands and choose one to begin. Here, thread first colors that match the colors closest to the knot to continue the ombre effect.

Continue to thread for about 8-12 inches. Hold up your flower occasionally to double check the ombre effect and to make sure you don't have too many petals above the knot. If you thread too many petals above the knot, your three strands will be long and there will be quite a bit of empty space when you hang them. The wisteria looks quite nice when the knot remains about halfway down the flower.

Once you reach about 8-12 inches above the knot (or the same length as the area below the knot), gently lay your strand on the table.

Repeat with the other two strands.

Gently lift your wisteria by the loose threads up to see the effect. Here, you will need to primp and adjust the strands and the string lengths to yield the flower. If the flower looks oddly droopy at the halfway point, lift the strands tighter.

Once you are pleased with the effect, tie a knot an inch or two above where the flowers end. Then, tie another knot (I like to double knot here!) 4-6 inches above the first knot. Here, you will place your paperclip. The paperclip is used to easily hang your wisteria!

From here, feel free to create more wisteria!
As you can see, there are so many variations of color and sizes. I switched up my colors and lengths to offer diversity. I hung my wisteria on a simple rope so you could see the effect and colors.

I plan to hang mine in a circle on a hula-hoop on the ceiling of my festival booth. How darling are these?!