My FIRST Commissioned Crocheted Flower Bouquet

_{(Edited on Canva)}

As early as January of this year, I already notice that a lot of crochet artists I knew from Facebook, were showcasing their bouquets of crocheted flowers. Flowers of different types, like sunflowers, the most popular among them, followed by tulips, lavender, roses, daisies, lilies, and many more. I was in love with all those bouquets and excited to make my own, so I ordered online for the materials to be used.

But I received orders for crochet wearables before the materials had arrived. So I had no choice but to finish as soon as I could with all the orders being made.

Then, in February, my mother-in-law was celebrating her birthday and I was eager to give her a flower bouquet on her special day. I saw some tutorials on how to make the tulip and decided to choose that type of flower since it was easy to make.

I finish the 3 tulips immediately, but the problem was that I didn't know how to wrap a bouquet, lol. And I remember some crochet artists who were flexing their crocheted flower bouquets, expressing their struggles in wrapping them for the first time. I had tried numerous times but failed to settle for a nice result, when she suddenly entered the small hut where I was hiding, making her a present.

At first, she was asking me if those flowers were made to order, and I replied a yes to her. When she noticed me struggling to wrap the bouquet, she then offered to try it for herself. She just folded those abaca fiber wrappers and voila! She made it. So after she successfully wrapped the bouquet, she handed it back to me, but she got surprised when I gave it to her and said "happy birthday".

_{My mother-in-law holding her bouquet of flowers.}

_{Close up shot of my 1st bouquet.}

We were both laughing because she had never thought that the bouquet she had wrapped was for her. She likes her present because it was her first time receiving that kind of bouquet of flowers that don't wither. She can keep it no matter how long she likes. But I will definitely practice more in doing this kind of flower bouquet and intend to give her next time a more beautiful one.

And it's been seven months since that first try. I never had the chance to practice because of some commissioned crochet wearables I received. Then last month, I was amazed and delighted to receive my first commission for a crochet flower bouquet from a friend who trusted me even if I didn't even attempt to share my own finished output of a crochet flower bouquet. I had been anticipating this moment to come and now I'm sharing this with you.

Making a crocheted tulip is very easy and I think any crocheter can copy this by just looking at the pictures I will be presenting.

But first, let's prepare our materials to be used in making a tulip.

Materials:

- floral wire (size 2mm)
- crochet hook (2.5mm)
- pliers
- big needle
- floral tape
- wire (I forgot what type and size for this one.)
- fiberfill (for our tulip filling)
- yarns
- gluestick

Procedures:

Begin by making a magic circle, chain 1 and 9 single crochet.
Increase in every layer making a small circle of 5 layers.
Next, do not increase on the 6th-19th layer, same on the picture, lock and cut the excess yarn.
Fill it with fiberfill or cotton. Scrap yarns are also fine.
After putting some filling on our tulip, sew it just like in the picture. Secure first your thread and cut the excess. Easy isn't it?

Now we're done with the flower.

Next, we'll attach the floral wire to our tulip by putting some glue stick on the end before we insert it into the center bottom of the flower. We don't want to easily remove the flower from the wire.
After that, we cover our wire with floral tape in a circular motion. Be sure to lightly stretch the floral tape as you cover so it will stick to the wire. Actually, you can skip this step if the wire is already green. I just want to show you how.

Now we're making a leaf by making a 35-chains. This leaf is composed of sc, hdc and dc stitches. I also put a wire as I crochet this leaf to make it look firm and the excess wire at the bottom will be used to tie it to the stem of our flower.

Cover the excess wire that you had encircled to the stem using the floral tape to give it a cleaner look. And we're done. 😍

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I was really enjoying it as I made these tulip flowers in different colors. And I was thinking of making a lot of them using more shades of colors in the future. But for now, let's focus on the order first.

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I also made some lavender and sunflower to be included in our flower bouquet. I hope I can share with you next time how to make these lavender flowers and sunflower.

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I managed to complete all the flowers in two days working on and off.

How to wrap a flower bouquet?

Wrapping a flower bouquet is not an easy task, especially for a newbie like me. I spend almost 2 days, configuring how to properly wrap it. I downloaded maybe 10 videos showing how to wrap a flower bouquet and I eventually got it right.

First, I arrange the flowers. I don't know how to do it properly, but I just thought it's the right way, lol. Next, I put some scotch tape to gather all the stems.

Good thing I have this kind of mesh fabric that I guess will help a lot in making our bouquet look pretty. Then fold some pink and lavender color paper on the back of the bouquet. I also cut some abaca fiber that I had in my stash.

And finally the ribbon. Well, I don't know how to make a lovely bow, but I didn't have much time, so I settled for what I did.

Final Result

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I was amazed at what I made. I love it! 😍 It may look like not the best flower bouquet you ever see, but for me, it represents a significant achievement in my crafting journey.

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