Boutonnieres. Oh, how I hate spelling that word.

Really, I do hate spelling it. I was never good at spelling (the best grade I ever got in spelling on my report card was a C+), and "boutonnieres" gets me every time. I hate that word. I would rather spell "man-bouquet" -- which is really what that thing is, and even though "bouquet" isn't easy to spell, it sure beats trying to spell boutonnieres, which I have yet to spell correctly without using spell check. So, I have decided to call them man-bouquets for the remainder of this post!

Anyway, moving on... Today I worked on man-bouquets. I know you are dying to know every step (and if you aren't, just pretend for me, okay?). I have tons of photos so you too can make your own man-bouquet!

The back part (a leaf) is loosely based on this tutorial from the ever-crafty Martha. However, I found that using just one layer of wool fabric created a floppy, flimsy leaf. I need something with more structure, so I created my own steps.

First, make a leaf template, preferably from cardstock. I just cut until I came up with one in a size and shape I liked. Next, cut a piece from the wool that is twice as wide as your leaf template. Then, cut a piece of wunder-under fusible web (I used the stuff with the paper backing because that is what I already had, but you could probably use the kind without the paper backing) that is half the size of your wool fabric piece. Using your iron, fuse the wunder-under to one half of the wool.

Next, cut a piece of floral wire (I used white to go with my color scheme). Pull up the paper backing (which I didn't do in the picture, so you could still see where the fusible web is) and lay the floral wire in the middle of the fusible web. Fold over the other half of the wool and iron. The wire should be sandwiched inbetween the two layers of wool.

Now you have little wool lollipops! Yum! Or not...

Lay the leaf template on top of the wool lollipop, aligning the bottom of the leaf with the bottom of the wool. Cut around the leaf template.

Tada! Wool leaves!

Here are the other ingredients for the man-bouquets. There are three different colors of silk shantung leaves, which were cut from a smaller leaf template with pinking shears. A stem was adhered to the back with one of my favorite glues, PVA. The white berries were cut from a larger stem and taped together with floral tape (white) in groups of four. The small flowers are also taped together in groups of four (two white, two black).

Stack the silk shantung leaves on top of the wool leaf.

Then, stack the berries and flowers on top. Use floral tape to tape the whole bundle together. I bring the floral tape up onto part of the grey wool leaf to pinch the bottom together (which you might notice in the next photo).

Sorry for the fuzzy photo, I must have forgotten to turn on the macro mode! Anyway, next I cut the wires to the same length, about 1.75 inches below the leaf.

Time for ribbon! To cover the bottom, I cut a small piece of the black grograin and folded it over the end.

Next, I wrapped a longer piece around the stem...

And adhered the top end using one of my other favorite adhesives, a small glue dot!

To make a nice neat knot on the front (I felt the stem looked a little blah), I cut another piece of ribbon, about 6 inches.

I tied it in a knot and cut the ends on a diagonal.

And you are done! Repeat 12 times! One groom, five groomsmen, one ringer bearer, two dads, two grandfathers, and one extra just-in-case.

Phew.

After all that, I was going to work on my beach quilt, but I realized that I didn't buy enough fabric for the backing. Which is the problem with making your own patterns and keeping them all in your head. Some day, I will write all the patterns down. But until then, I need to go to the fabric store again.