Sesen Art and Crafts: CraftBook Challenge - How to Make a Crochet Flower Necklace

Crochet flower necklace

I am almost but not quite embarrassed to say I have a 'little' compulsion. Some may call it an addiction.... CRAFT BOOKS. I must have them! I have been collecting painting books, sewing books, crochet/knitting books, mixed media books in all their various forms for nearly 15 years.
I love to be inspired and will try my hand at most media.

But.....

And even with culling a few boxes in the last shift, I still have piles and shelves of books and magazines that I just cannot (at this moment) bear to give away.

And this doesn't include the shelf loads inside the house!

So...

I had one last box of books in our office waiting to be tidied up and as I was pulling out the mags from this box and finding that they were all 'needed', decided there had to be a reason that each book was purchased in the first place. Some image or tutorial must have pressed a button? Lots of good ideas, lots of inspiration with no action!

Now was the time!

So folks. With no further ado. I am giving myself a challenge. And I would be more that happy if you would like to join in and have some fun as well!

Each week I am going to pull out a magazine or book from my stash. (From the top of the piles, no cheating) And find something from that book to create. I have stipulated with myself that I will either copy the tutorial (changing it up of course to make it my own) or be inspired by the elements of the tutorial to create something new. Sound good? Fantastic!

First cab off the rank (or pile) was a HANDMADE magazine Vol 34 No.12. There were actually a few tutorials that 'spoke' to me in this mag, but the one that stood out was a Crochet/Bead Wall Canvas by Michelle Torresan. I felt this would be a great craft idea for a little girls room, but not having any little girls available but still fancying some crochet had a little think.

Crochet flower canvas art. Do drop by to Michelle's store on Etsy. She features the most adorable children's toys and decor.

Now I have been wanting a crochet flower necklace for a while. So off I went to the yarn stash and found some navy and white cotton yarn - Portsea Cotton by Moda Vera. Perfect. This would look great with a t-shirt and jeans!

The tutorial has two different size crochet flowers and a butterfly which are easy to do but I settled on the large flower.

Using the Portsea yarn and 4.5mm crochet hook created the flower. The only change I made was after finishing each flower I then added 20 chain and created the beginning centre ring of the flower by sl st into the 5 ch from the end of the 20. Create as many flowers as you like then fasten off at the first flower made.
As my crochet is fairly loose I found the flowers a bit floppy, so using a matching thread I fastened the crochet chain that ran from the middle of each flower at its rear to the top of a petal.

The crochet hook points to the stitch made to hold the single chain in place.

So there you have it. I love my new necklace, and may not have got around to making one if I had not been inspired by the flowers in this tutorial!

So if you feel inspired, then I would love you to create your own flower fun. Take a pic and send me the link so I can pop it up here.

I have taken photos of the instructions and popped them here.