burn your prom dress into flowers

OK, these burnt taffeta flowers are all over the internet. I made them with my crafternight friends and with my kids. Both groups seemed to like this project. So, here is a mini tutorial on what we did, but really just consider this an endorsement of the craft! It is fun and the results are pretty great.






1. Cut a bunch of circle-ish shapes out of any synthetic prom dress material. Ten is a good number to start with.






2. Burn the edges. A little or alot. It is interesting to see how the different materials burn and curl.






3. Definitely let your kids do this! Kids love to burn things and supervised activities like this teach them a healthy respect for fire. Check out this video for more inspiration. My 5, 7, and 9 year olds all did this with minimal melting of their fingers.






4. Stack the pieces together. Then decide if you need to make more or trim some them.







5. When you have the look you want, sew them together, from the middle, using some seed beads if you want. That is it! You can attach this to a barrette, pin, headband, tote bag, scarf, curtain, lampshade.....you get the idea.

We even forayed into making seaweed, leaves and carnivorous plants. None of which turned out too great, but it was fun and open ended learning!



p.s.These make great teacher gifts. My kids are making them for their swim coaches this summer.