DIY - Boutonnieres!

(Cropped photo by RAD Photography)

If you noticed the men's boutonnieres (bouts) at all, I can tell you they were tiny bits of pride and joy for me. I had been wanting to make them for a while but was worried they wouldn't turn out. About a month before our day, I had gathered a few choices for Chris to chose from and I was surprised that he chose the lacy ones, which I loved since my dress was also lace. So during the last two weeks before the wedding, between bachelorette favor bags and bouts, I was sewing like a mad woman.

I purchased some lace from a craft store intending to use it for the bouquet wraps, but thought since it was fairly stiff it could make nice flowers for the bouts instead, and the sewing began.

All I did was fold some lace accordian style and sewed a few times along one side, then folded a bit more and the sewed edges again. When I thought I had enough I sewn cut edges of the lace together, and then sewed the sewn edges together in a sort of haphazard way to create a nice circular flower. I then kinda went wild with thread and just pinned down lace in the middle area here and there to make a flat center area.

I ordered more lace in bunches via Etsy, but lengths of the laces I got on Etsy varied widely and I assumed this was because the lace was 'vintage'. I was sorta disappointed though when the seller gave me two pieces of the same lace, which made me think she was cutting it from a long reel. Given the opportunity I would have preferred a few long cuts of lace instead of a short cuts from different lace trims, but the seller didn't give me that option. Anyway my point is a few laces I preferred to make flowers out of just didn't have enough length to go around. I did finally settle on second a wider lace that was slightly more cream to create a second larger flower for each of the bouts and I repeated the process above.

With the flower forms created I decided to give them a little more character. I added a lace flower cut from a large lace motif (see below) to the center of the smaller flowers. Then for the larger lace flowers, I cut a few flower shapes from tulle and sewed these to the center of their centers. For those of you who might think this looks familiar - it was the same lace used for my veil!

Finally I sewed on half of a snap button fastener to add a contrasting manly middle to each flower.

With the flowers complete it was time to start assembling. I could have used hot glue for these steps, but I was in sewing mode. To create stems I purchased black radio wire for girth. I took the wire and cut a few 3" pieces. I folded each piece in half and sewed the folded end of a wire to the back of the flowers, one small and one large (I just held them up to the wire, put them roughly into the places I desired, and started sewing). Again I was haphazard with my sewing and stiched the flowers together as well to keep them in the proper place. Next I took black ribbon and wrapped it around the top of the radio wire. A quick stitch secured it in place, then I wrapped the rest of the wire and sewed a quick knot at the bottom to secure the ribbon.

Finally I added Guinea feathers, which my father picked up for me last minute! I tried to find them in the city, ok I could have tried harder, but some stores were out because it was steelhead season. If I had to do the assembling over I would wrap the quill of the feathers to the bouts as I added the black ribbon, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to add them so that step was already finished. Instead I secured each feather in place with a bit of sewing thread, and topped it off with a dab of craft glue for good measure. Here were the final products in action:

(cropped photo by RAD Photographer)

I think they are so cute, but I am partial : ) I wish Chris had wanted one so I could have a leftover bout but he was so into his pocket square. I also wish I had asked RAD to specifically capture the bouts since I had made them, but maybe I'll take a quick snap of my dad's whenever I'm home next just to have around.

This was such a satisfying project! It kinda makes me want to put up an etsy shop, but then maybe I'll try to convince whoever gets married next they really want me to make more for them!