Boutonnaire Tutorial

I've been wanting to post about this for awhile now, but it got so busy that I totally forgot about it until a few of my blog fans asked about it. So here it is. The cupcake tier tutorial will be definitely be next!

I created a tendril for a felt template. Printed it out to fill up a whole A3 size paper. You can email me if you want my template. Just print as many as required. Cut the template into manageable sizes and pin felt pieces to each tendril. (Do plan your colour theme as well, luckily for my bro, I could find similar plum and purple coloured felt for this little project.) Begin cutting, use a pointed sharp pair of scissors making sure you leave enough stalk at the end of the felt so that you can floral tape the ends to the floral wire.

Arrange the felt pieces that were cut and sandwich each with a floral wire with a strand of ribbon at the back. Use the 'twist and glue' UHU glue. Hot guns will be messy here as you'll need something with a thin spout. This method ensures that your felt will be sturdy enough to be bound together with the rest of the buttons. A line of glue before you place the wire and the ribbon right on top. See picture above. Let dry overnight. UHU glues take more time. Don't use epoxy or super glue for this. Once dry, you'll notice that the ribbon is quite stuck to the felt piece holding on to the wire.

Using floral tape (colour of your choice, you can find them in pinks, browns, whites and even many shades of green in the craft store) wrap the ends firmly and slowly twirl downwards, making sure you secure the wire, ribbon and the felt together and the tip. A tip with using floral tape : It feels not sticky at first, but when you begin to tighten and stretch the tape, more glue will be released and you'll feel the tape working it's magic.

Prepare the rest of the buttons with floral wire and tape. See the underside of the button featured here. I've securedly wrapped the floral tape around the button, it takes practice, but once you do a few, you'll find it quite a breeze. Don't mind the sticky fingers, you can just wash them when you finish. Becareful you don't stain the buttons, dirty workspaces will make sticky fingers a nightmare to work with.

Compile all the elements. Start composing little bundles and set aside. Like a bouquet of flowers, you'll have to select a focus point (being the biggest piece of button), and small little ones to surround and finish the bundle.

Use floral tape and bind all the elements together and finish off with ribbon of choice. Here I used leftover felt ribbons from the invites. Tie the velvet ribbon, downside upwards! and finish off with a bow at the top securing the bundle one last time.

Every bouttonaire is different. A mix and match of buttons, accessories, pearls add glamour to the whole ensemble. You can also add fresh flowers to this, but keep it simple.

I've used up my stash of purple buttons.
The groom's boutonnaire is slightly different. I had a coordinating locket that matches the ring pillow attached to his boutonnaire.

And don't forget to provide a pin for each boutonnaire you've created on that special day. All you need is a pearl headed pin long enough to pierce through the velvet ribbon, the wearer's lapels and back to the velvet ribbon of the boutonnaire. To see how you should put on one, head over to martha stewart for a step by step how to.