Flower Loom Tutorial

I have been showing my students how to use a flower loom. The loom featured in this tutorial is actually part of a kit that I found in a toy shop! You can buy them online. I have seen them advertised as Vintage and the idea does come from the 1970's and I shall come back to this point tomorrow. Many that I have seen advertised as vintage, along with a vintage price, is not always accurate and are in fact brand new. So do be careful and do a little price comparing first.

Tutorial

Materials and Equipment:

Flower Loom
Scraps of wool
Scissors
Crochet hook or knitting needle
Instructions:

Using wool that you wish to have as the petals, leave a small length which will be used for securing off later and begin winding it around your flower loom. Most looms should come with a set of their own instructions which are not really very inspiring, but if not, then wind the wool in a figure of 8 using the pegs that line opposite each other. At the same time move in a clockwise direction.

Do make sure that the wool does cross in the middle of the loom as it gives a more stable flower when it is taken off the loom.

For this flower I went round 6 times, so that there are 6 loops on each peg. I then tied it off at the back with the tail that I left at the beginning.
Next, using a contrast colour, thread a needle and bring this up from the back of the loom.

Pull the wool up along the side of one of the loops and then down the other side.

Do see in the photo where I have placed the purple loop to secure the loop of pink wool. I will then take the purple wool around the back of the loop before moving onto the next pink loop.

These purple loops will prevent the flower from coming apart once taken off the loom.

Secure the contrast colour on the back of the loom.
I then decided to stitch another row but going through the middle of each pink loop and skipping to the centre of the next one as shown in the picture.

You can stop here but I like to secure the centre of the flower so that it could be attached to a brooch pin or stitched onto another project.

So taking another piece of wool I stitched from the centre out towards the purple stitching which formed a rough star shape. Next, take your crochet hook or knitting needle etc, and use this to ease your flower off the loom.
At this point you can add additional pieces such as buttons, beads or more stitching.
The loops of the flower can then be teased apart to show all of the layers.
You can use a variety of materials to make flowers like this, ribbon is a pretty good one to try. Or make them with different coloured layers of wool as you create the loops. Then stitch them on to your next project.

Hope this has been useful and you could probably make one of these with a piece of wood and tacks nailed into it, just make sure that they are long enough to take several layers of wool and that the ends are not rough or sharp.

xx