Felted Dahlia Appliqued Cardigan

My latest cardigan-makeover was a fun take on the tutorial posted here by Megan Reardon of Not Martha.  It's called a "Mother's Day Corsage", so it's seasonally appropriate.

I went to Joann's and picked up a bunch of felt rectangles (sold in 8" x 11" sizes for about $0.30 each. Often they are on sale for 4/$1). I then cut them up into little squares per the tutorial. The only change I made was to not do the largest sized square. I did about 14 of the 1.25" size and 20 or so of the 1" squares.  Then put the 14 larger petals around the circle and filled in two overlapping rows of the smaller petals.

I like the combination of bright, jewel tones with the muted camels and browns. I also like that there are 8 that don't match perfectly but complement each other, and I can take off some or use 1 or 2 on another sweater or jacket.

There's no "before" photo of the cardigan. It's just a simple cotton cardi I picked up at Ann Taylor Loft many, many years ago.

A close up.

Though this project does require a hot glue gun, I think anyone, crafty or not, should own one.  I used it last week to repair a pair of shoes and one of Ellie's wood toy hammers that broke in half.  They are SO handy.

All in all, this project cost me about $3 for 8 pins: felt, hot glue refills, pin findings (sold for about $1 for a 10 pack) and an empty cereal box (free).