Scrappy Bumblebees & Vinyl Flowers

Scrappy bee and a flower suitable for the great outdoors...

A few weeks ago, I went the library route again and borrowed some sewing books.

This time, however, they were ebooks. (We were on semi lockdown once more and borrowing physical books would have required a lot more planning than I was willing to do.)

One of the books was Sewing by Heart by Tone Finnanger, published in 2017. In it, I found a cute scrap-busting project called Busy Bees. (Along with a "just as cute" project for making a beehive pin cushion, as shown here.)

Bees and beehives...
image from Sewing by Heart by 
Tone Finnanger

A common problem with sewing ebooks is that you don't have easy access to the templates. But I guess-timated the dimensions and shape of these bees and came up with my own, which I will now share with you.

Of course, since I wasn't about to make the matching beehive project — it looks stupendous but requires a ridiculous amount of fabric for something that's going to be used as a pin cushion — I had to come up with something else with which to attract my bee.

I remembered that a few years back, when I made my fabulous fabric flowers, I made one in my faux waxcloth (vinyl). Since I still had a lot of that stuff lying around, I thought, why not make a different sort of flower with it?

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The flower that I ultimately made is based on my designer paper flowers project. (I originally debated with myself over posting about those — because the project had nothing to do with sewing — but I'm really glad I did, because it's now being reused in a sewing related manner!) I used the original templates, so the resulting flower is roughly the same size.

Giant vinyl flower...

The only thing I did differently from the paper versions was to cut twelve of the outer six petals, making them double-sided (i.e., the pattern shows on the underside of the flower as well, while the underside of the inner petals are white). And because the project requires a hot glue gun, I simply hot glued the two layers together rather than sewing them. (I had a thought that if I opted to sew them, I could also stuff them with a bit of polyfil for some added dimension, but that's a thought for another day.) 

Squeezing the core together on the back...

I will make one important observation; the vinyl flops around quite a bit and is not as easy to handle as card stock. And while it won't really curl the way you want it to, the end result seems to have its own appeal. I used a couple of elastic bands to squeeze together a core at the center of the flower (on the back) so that the petals stand up somewhat. The whole thing would otherwise lie flat.

You could make this out of interfaced fabric too, but then you likely wouldn't be as comfortable leaving it out as part of your outdoor decor. (Not to mention the expense of using fabric and interfacing; this vinyl only cost me a dollar a metre.)

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Now let's talk about the bumblebees, shall we? 

They are simple enough to make, although I deviated from the inspiration project. I added black felt stripes, changed how the wings are sewn together and used less stuffing on the resulting body; it's decidedly flatter. (It finishes out to about 3.75" long. Wingspan on mine was 6.25", but will depend on how you position the wings.)

Simply constructed wings...

For the wings, I opted not to do a "sew and turn right side out" process. The fuzzy finish of a zigzag stitch seemed more in keeping with insect wings. I did put a layer of fusible fleece in between the two fabrics. 

By the way, the pattern download provides a left and right wing template for ease of reference; they are — of course — the same shape, only mirrored. Just remember that if you're stacking two fabrics to cut them at the same time for each wing, ensure that they are wrong sides together (because they're not meant to be turned right side out).

Black stripes added to the body...

I wanted my bumblebee to look more like a bee, so apart from using the yellow-est fabric that I had on hand, I cut some strips of black felt and zigzag stitched them to the two sides of the body. 

For the body (no interfacing), I used a 1/4" seam allowance and did the "sew and turn" thing. 

Stuff and close up the turning gap...

It was then stuffed with some polyfil to the degree that you see above and then hand-stitched closed.

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Again, because my hot glue gun was handy, I opted to hot glue the wings to the body.

Attach wings to body...

Alternatively, the wings can be anchored with a few hand-sewn stitches at strategic points. (Fabrics are selections by Robert Kaufman for the wings and a paisley from Kitty and the Muse for the body.)

What can you do with these bees? Make a mobile out of them. Attach them with double-sided tape to a window or patio screen door. Use them as pin cushions. Arrange them on your houseplants like I did with these butterflies.

A fabric bee and a vinyl flower!

I once read something about how to tell bees from hornets/wasps. It said that if it's "cute", it's likely a bee. In the case of bumblebees, that's especially true, since their bodies are quite round. (Honeybees tend to be a little less cute.)

My box of fabric scraps gave up enough for me to make a second bee..

I like bees. We need bees. I'm concerned that our real world bees are being threatened by what we have done to the environment. On the positive side, I have noticed many more bees and butterflies around our yard this spring, and similar increased sightings have been reported across the city and province. If the numbers are really coming back, that's a good thing.

Please do your part to ensure that a portion of your outdoor space is bee friendly. Hubby and I are lucky enough to live next to a ravine. The rear corner of our yard is kept as "wild" space. 

'Til next...