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Hello! I'm Suzannah, a serious DIYer and mom of two little ones. Follow along with my DIY fixer upper house renovations, sewing and crafty projects, real food recipes, and de-stressing goals.
I believe you can love your home just the way it is, AND have the power to design and make big changes to make it better.
I'm also the author of DIY Wardrobe Makeovers!

As promised, cute burlap boutonniere tutorial!

I posted a while ago about how much fun I had with a DIY boutonniere projectfor my friend's wedding. She's getting married a few weeks before me and in an old barn (McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse), with red and tan colors and bird images and rustic details. She saw this boutonniere on a wedding online and knew it was perfect for her groomsmen! The bride had made them, so my friend couldn't buy them anywhere, so I offered to help DIY! We had so much fun shopping and then assembling the materials, and making an almost-exact replica with a few details changed. We made 9 of them.  (Burlap Fabric is a great source for burlap and burlap rolls!)

Super cute, right??

How about a tutorial?!?

Materials:

  • Burlap
  • Cereal box-weight cardboard
  • Three kinds of buttons, one of each on each boutonniere
  • Two kinds of feathers
  • Pin backs
  • Natural jewelry cord
  • Elmer's Glue
  • Hot glue gun
  • 3/4" wide ribbon
  • Embroidery floss and big needle (optional)
  • Sturdy bamboo skewers
So here's the tutorial:
  • You'll need to cut leaf shapes out of the cardboard.  Trace with pencil the shape you want, and once you get what you like, cut out one teardrop per boutonniere.

  • Use a cardboard teardrop as a pattern and cut out burlap shapes, one for each boutonniere.  Be approximate--no need to be exact at this point.
  • Put a little Elmer's Glue on each cardboard piece (the natural-colored side) and glue the burlap down.
  • Let dry a minute or so.
  • Trim off the remaining fabric.
  • We chose to get out the cardboard again (or use regular paper) and make a pattern piece for a slightly larger leaf, to give the boutonniere more depth and make our original piece a little bigger.  The original doesn't have this--it's optional, of course!
  • Cut out a larger burlap teardrop for each boutonniere, using your new pattern.
  • We now had nine big burlap teardrops and nine cardboard-backed smaller teardrops.
  • Now for the sticks.  Measure your skewers to 3.75" or so, score them with scissors, and break.  Make one per boutonniere.
  • Glue each stick to the center of each cardboard-backed teardrop with hot glue.
  • Wrap the jewelry cord around the leaf stem, starting by gluing the end to the bottom of the stick (not really shown... sorry).  I recommend one thin line of hot glue, up one side of the stick, and do only an inch or so at a time since the glue will cool before you get to the top!  Glue the loose end down onto the front (burlap side) of the leaf (also not shown, again, sorry).

  • Now to make the cute ribbon bows.  Some ribbons come already with cute running stitch detailing on the edges, for example--but we wanted to stick to the original so we made our own embroidered ribbon!
  • For 3/4" wide ribon, you'll need about 11" from the center of the ribbon longways to the center on the other end.  Cut the ribbon with a slant cut.
  • Using a big needle, do a running stitch down each ribbon piece.
  • Cut off the end of the embroider floss after you finish sewing each piece.  They will be bumpy so you can flatten them as much as possible, pulling on them with your fingers.
  • Tie into bows!
  • Now back to base pieces.  Glue your first layer of feathers down--for us, that's the puffy white ones.
  • Now, you'll glue on the top layer of feathers--these polka dot-ey ones are so cute!!
  • Get your button sets ready...
  • Now you should have all the pieces.
  •  So now, glue everything down.  Start by gluing on the bows.
  • I recommend putting a tiny drop of hot glue inside the bow to keep it tied.
  • Now glue the buttons on.  You can overlap them a little if you want.
  • Glue the larger burlap teardrop shapes onto the cardboard sides of the main teardrops.  We liked the extra depth this bigger back piece gave, and it covers the cardboard and makes the whole thing a little bigger but not floppy.
  • Now, glue the pin back pieces on to the backs of the teardrops.  We put ours at a slight angle so that the leaf shapes would tilt a little on the lapels.  (No pics, sorry!)
  • That's it!!

All done!

Now you have lovely boutonnieres for groomsmen and anyone else in the wedding.  You could do all kinds of things with these, actually...
Can't wait to see them on the groosmen et al at my friend's July wedding!!

I will be making my dress to wear as her bridesmaid, and we'll be doing lots of other fun crafts for the big day, so stay tuned!

27 comments

  1. those are really cute. You did a great job

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  2. omgoodness i really love these! Thanks for the tutorial..I just got engaged last Sunday and have been going crazy with ideas!

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  3. These are so funky and cute! I love the combination of everything!

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  4. It's really nice and seems easy to make. Tanks!
    Take a look at the little animal dolls I create:
    http://www.funkysunday.com/2011/05/doudou-psychelephant.html
    Today you can adopt an elephant!

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  5. I love it! I will certainly be doing something similar! Thanks for the tutorial

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  6. These are so ridiculously great. I'm super impressed!

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  7. these are amazing! love them! such a cute idea.

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  8. LOVE THIS!! Thanks so much for the breakdown. I am making boutonnieres for a friend's wedding this weekend and this was a lifesaver!

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  9. OMG, that is awesome, @swell.life!

    So glad this is useful for folks!! =)

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  10. I think these are really great. I immediately emailed it to a bride who's wedding theme that would fit right in to!!

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  11. Очень хороший и нужный мастер-класс!

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  12. Anonymous5/23/2011

    I love handmade things!! I am always looking for great ideas and this is great!!

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  13. Love the use of the burlap - great material!

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  14. Totally love the textures and patterns in these! Wonderful!

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  15. hi there :)

    I am the bride who made the buttonaires in your inspiration image - so happy to hear you were inspired by ours! and yours turned out great I bet your friend LOVES them!!

    looks like we pretty much used the same materials and techique too, although we used wire (instead of the skewers), souble sided iron on interfacing and our ribbon was already embriodered.

    cute cute!

    I also made some for my dad and my father -in-law to match my mum and mother in laws dresses - they are so addictive and fun to make huh :)

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  16. Anonymous5/24/2011

    These look fantastic! maybe i missed the bit in the directions but how do you hold them onto the jackets? thanks :)

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  17. I just saw this DIY on Green Wedding Shoes and Love it. I'm wondering if you have any ideas on non-feather boutonnieres? I would love to make some for our dads, grandpa's and ushers, but feathers just won't 'fit' into our wedding. maybe I'll brainstorm something. xo Kirby

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  18. OMG!! @kt mac, how exciting to hear from you!! My friend LOVED those boutonnieres, you guys did such a great job and they look so cool. Thanks for reading!!

    @Anonymous, yes, sorry, no pics of that part, but you hot glue a pin back onto the back of the boutonniere. You can buy packages of pin backs at the craft store for a dollar or two.

    @Kirby, you could easily make these without feathers. You could do folded bits of fabric instead in your color, that would look like leaves or buds. Play around! =)

    P.S. Just saw another wedding that made almost EXACT replicas of the SMP wedding boutonnieres! http://www.lisaboggsphotography.com/blog/2011/07/08/brandy-and-michael-westport-connecticut-wedding/

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  19. OK, Those are simply fabulous! LOVE them. :) I've made a few boutonnieres in my day (my fav was all greenery) but these are so funky and different. Thanks for sharing--I'll be directing some friends this way for sure!
    Jaime

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  20. Great tutorial, i will make it for my sister, her wedding is next month. thank...

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  21. Wonderful tutorial! I have included these boutonnieres in my latest blog post, 2012 Wedding Inspiration, which you can see here: http://www.amandamazur.com/sweet-reverie/2012-wedding-inspiration.

    -Amanda

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  22. Haha.. I was going through 101 Simple Handmade wedding ideas and this was linked. I love it! Great job.

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  23. Great Tutorial!! Thanks for sharing! I already made mine http://pinterest.com/pin/112801165638562705/

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  24. Hey Suzannah!

    What kind of bouquet will you recommend for the bride that matches these boutonnieres?

    Thanks for your help!

    - Carmen

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  25. My friend owns a wonderful local handmade goodies store in Dallas, PA ... would love to see these there!

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