Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Fabric Flower Tutorial


Hi there!  So, I have had this lovely penny-wise fabric and I thought it would be perfect to make some fun fabric flowers with it! I searched high and low for different ways to make fabric flowers, and finally decided to come up with my own way to make these little lovelies!  I decided on the gray and green color combo because I thought it would be fun to have my little girl wear it for St. Patrick's Day.  But you could definitely make this in any color combination you prefer and it would look just as lovely! 
This flower measures about 3.5" across.


The penny-wise fabric I used comes in all different colors, so if you'd like to use the same fabric, but in a different color you can!  We carry all of the colors that you can see below:


Supplies Needed:

1 strip of fabric 2.5" x 20"
1 strip of coordinating fabric 1.5" x 20"
1 Button
Needle and coordinating thread
Felt 
Alligator clip or floral pin
Hot glue

First, you will cut out your 2.5" strip of fabric:  You can pretty much make these wider or more narrow depending on how large you want your flower.  For this size of strip, my flower ended up being about 3.5" across.  


Next, with scissors cut one of the long sides of the strip so it has a wavy pattern:

Thread your needle with coordinating thread and tie a knot at one end:

Bring the needle up from the back, so your knot is on the back of the fabric:

Now you are going to thread your needle up and down about 1/8" to 1/4" apart on the side that is not wavy:


Once you have it threaded through a few times, pull your needle through:


Repeat the process until you get the end of the strip:

Now pull the thread tight and the fabric will bunch up into a flower-like shape.  You might have to work with it a little bit to get it the way you want it. 

Now you want to tie off your thread and make sure your flower is secure.  Bring your needle up and down, and then when you have your needle on the back make the flower more secure by adding quite a few stitches until you feel like it is secure. 




You can leave it as is and just do one flower, and add a button or other embellishment to the center.  Or you can add another flower on top. 

I decided to make another flower in green to go on top of my larger flower.   You will make the smaller one with the 1.5" strip and you will follow the exact same instructions to make it. 

Once you have them both made, you will sew them together.  I like to leave my thread attached to the  top flower and then I just thread the bottom flower to attach them together.  You can then sew on a button or hot glue another type of embellishment. 

If you want to attach your flower to a hair pin, or floral clip you will need to cut out two circles of felt:




Place some hot glue on the bigger one:


And glue it onto the back of your flower.  

Clip your hair clip onto the smaller piece of felt and then glue it onto the bigger circle.  You can definitely do this differently if you don't want the extra piece of felt, but I like to hide the hot glue, so this is how I do it so you don't see a big glob of hot glue on the back:


That's all there is to it!  I like to run my fingers across the raw edge of the fabric so that I can make it fray a little bit! It makes it look a bit shabby--which I love! I made this flower in less than a half an hour and after I was done I wanted to make one in each color of the rainbow! :)


The possibilities are endless when you make these! You can add it to a wreath, pillow, a cardigan, bag, or use it as a hair accessory! I can't wait to make some more! :) 

Talk to you soon,



4 comments:

Amy's Crafty Shenanigans said...

Awesome tutorial - thanks for sharing. Gorgeous fabric to use too!!!

Paula said...

A friend of mine has just started making some hair bows for her baby granddaughters - I am passing this link along to her!!

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

What a cute flower and great tutorial! I think everyone is ready for Spring!

Charmaine McLaughlin said...

Thanks for the darling idea...will definitely be making a few of these!

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