Autumn Leaves DIY

I know that some of you may be in denial as I mostly am, but it's mid-August and autumn is right around the corner.  And you know what that means!  I have to make something that involves leaves!

Click on through to get the full tutorial to make your own autumn leaves:)

First, assemble your supplies.  You will need some fabric; I used some old shirts that DH was getting rid of.  You'll also need some cardboard or heavy card stock, scissors, florist wire, wire snips, spray adhesive, fabric pen, and a marker.  Oh!  and a real leaf to use as a stencil.

I really like to make do with what I have on hand, so if you don't have a fabric pen, use a regular one.  If you don't have florist wire, steal the twist tie from the bread, and blame it on your husband or the cat.

You could free hand the leaf pattern or trace your real leaf onto the cardboard and then cut it out.

Cut out a couple squares of fabric, the same size, and trace your leaf onto the top piece.

Cut a piece of wire the length of the leaf, plus more for the stem.

Now go outside and spray the inside of both pieces of fabric with the adhesive.  If you don't have adhesive or don't want to use it because it gets your hands sticky, then you can use fusible interfacing, and just iron it in the middle of the two pieces of fabric.  I really prefer this method, but my interfacing was one sided, and I had to sew the other leaf on.  It did keep my hands from getting sticky, so this one was a difficult choice for me:)

Now stick your stem in between the two layers of fabric.

Put the two sides together very carefully, and press down all over to seal it.

Cut your leaf out.

Now take a thin strip of the fabric and wrap the wire with it.  You could spray the fabric strip with more adhesive and then it would just stick together as you wrap it, but then you'd get your fingers sticky.  Are you starting to get a feel for how much I don't like sticky fingers?  Yep.  I just wrapped it around, then ran some tacking stitches up and down the stem.  Tack it to the leaf really well also.

It'll look like this.

Next, you can add some veins with embroider thread.  And if you want a little extra bling, put some beads on.  Is it bad form to change your background color 3/4 of the way through your blog post?  Not to mention the leaf morphed into something else!

Ta da!  Autumn leaves to hang wherever you wish!

If you really want some leaves for yourself, but don't want to make them, you can find these in my shop:)

Happy crafting!  I'll see you Friday:)