I used very busy patterns with contrasting threads/felt innards to convey the chaos, and kept the lily pads as simplistic as possible to draw attention to the purported calm of the lily and the actuality of the lily’s existence, i.e. life is messy – why can’t it look busy? I did little to no research on skills outside of the class since I had a strong idea in my head of how to accomplish this project without additional direction/instruction needed since the lily was already fleshed out (thanks Robert for the dart pattern! A happy accident turned into a lily pond!!)

I ended up having 3 nested flowers so that the lily seemed “full,” with a flower-layer being 5, 4, and 3 inch squares with room for hemming on all sides. I used relatively thin fabrics with contrasting thread to convey the chaotic and simplistic nature of life in the lily. The darts on the fabric included a diamond in the center with 4 triangles starting at each point in the diamond – an image of that initial pattern is in the design sketch.

I relied on the darts I made previously for the muslin flower, as well as the machine sewing experience I had to sew the lily pads and the flowers. However, for the muslin flower, the edges were unfinished, so I hemmed all of the edges so they could be clean and relatively neat. Below are photos of the process for making one flower: