Thursday 13 October 2016

Free crochet flower, stem and leaf pattern.

It is so long since I wrote a pattern out properly, I appear to formed a new shorthand in my pattern writing book, that only I can understand so if you fancy having a go at this one do let me know if you find any errors.  I would love to see your creations.

I used Debbie Bliss, Eco baby, fair trade organic cotton, two colours required, one for the flower and one for the leaf.  I used a 2.75 hook for the flower and a 2.25 hook for the stem and leaves.  You can play with your own yarn with different hooks to see which ones suit you best.

I am using UK crochet terms throughout this pattern.

Flower
Make a starting loop and make a foundation chain of 48


Row one - Make one treble crochet in the fourth chain from the hook, chain 2, *miss one foundation chain and make a treble crochet in the next foundation chain* repeat from * to * to the last foundation chain.
You will notice that your work is starting to look like a helix if held vertically or rounded as in the picture when lying flat, this is good!

Row two - turn work and make a slip stitch into the first chain 2 gap, chain 1, do 3 treble crochet, chain 1 and slip stitch all into that first chain 2 gap. *Make a slip stitch into the next chain 2 gap, chain 1, do 3 treble crochet, chain 1 and slip stitch all into the next gap* continue from * to * until you fill the last chain 2 gap.


Your work should definitely now look like a helix.  Fasten off, leaving a good 12 inches of yarn to use in sewing the flower together.

Stem

Using the smaller hook make 5 double crochet into a magic circle.  Draw the circle closed.
The stem is worked in a continuous spiral, to ensure that you get a nice even stitch you might find it easier to count the total number of stitches in your spiral or you may prefer to count rows of 5, whichever works best for you.


Being careful to push the work towards you, start counting stitches or rows working in double crochet.  You will need to complete 75 double crochet or 15 rows of 5.
Row sixteen -  do two double crochet in each stitch around. (10)
Row seventeen - work one double crochet in the next stitch, two double crochet in the next stitch, repeat this around (15) Finish off leaving approx 5 inches of yarn to sew it to the flower.
Leaves (make 2)

Make a slip knot and work 10 foundation chain stitches.
There is one row to be worked which will go down the set of foundation chains and around the bottom and up the opposite side of those same foundation chains.
Row one - Make one double crochet in the second chain from the hook. Make another double crochet in the next foundation chain. Work one treble crochet in each of the next 7 stitches, work one double crochet in the next and turn your work
work one double crochet in the foundation chain closest to the hook. Work one treble crochet in each of the next 6 foundation chains, work one double crochet in each of the next foundation chains.
Fasten off your work, leaving approximately 10 inches of yarn to sew down the centre of the leaf and to sew it to the stem.


Putting it all together!

Lets start with the flower.  Working from the end you finished with, thread your needle with the long piece of finishing yarn.  Fold the first two petals right sides together and put a stitch or two through the foundation chain to secure them in a fold.




Continue to wrap the foundation chain around this fold putting stitches through the foundation chains of last fold.
Keep doing this making sure you turn the flower around to the right side to make sure you are happy with the shape of your flower.  Eventually it should look like this..
When the you come to the piece of yarn you started your foundation chain from you need to fasten off the yarn and take both pieces of yarn through to the centre of the back of the flower and snip them off.  This will be covered by the stem.
Don't forget to turn your flower over and check you are happy before you snip the ends off!
Next take the stem, if you still have yarn running up out of the centre of the stem, then snip this off where it opens out.  Thread your needle with the remaining long thread.
Hold the stem to the centre back of the flower and start stitching the two together.

Once you have gone all the way around you can fasten off your thread and snip off the excess.

Take each leaf in turn to finish them before attaching them to the stem.

Thread the short beginning thread and fasten it off to the rear of the leaf and fasten and snip it off.

Thread the longer thread and first thread through the first double crochet you made and, this will give a nice point to your leaf.

Next you need to back stitch down the leaf with the right side facing you to give the centre of the leaf a bit of definition

Next place the first leaf along the stem
Fasten it with a few stitches between the leaf and the side of the stem
Repeat on the other side with your other leaf and you should have done!

Here are two versions, one worked with the debbie bliss eco baby cotton and one worked with at 1.25 hook for the flower and a 0.5mm hook for the stem and leaf using embroidery cotton.

If you want to make your flower into a brooch then simply sew a fastener onto the rear of the stem
I hope you enjoy making these flowers as much as I have.  I have used the same flower and leaf pattern to make tea cosies




As well as making mini ones for my beautiful little pure british wool mice, a fitting tribulte to british wool week I think ...

Don't forget to post pictures of what you do with your flowers in the comments to this post.

Happy Crafting xx









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