Thursday, December 22, 2011

{getting crafty} Fabric Flower Tutorial

Like yoyos, fabric flowers make a great embellishment to all kinds of sewing projects. I love them because they're quick and easy to make.  They can even be a no-sew project for those who prefer using craft glue.

Note: I have an updated and improved hot glue fabric flower in this post. 

The first step is to determine how big around you want your fabric flower, and find a circular item around the house that's about the same size. I find that a regular soup can makes the perfect size to embellish a lot of different items.
Yeah I eat spaghettios; wanna fight?

Lay your fabric out flat, wrong side up, and trace 9 circles using a water soluble pen or chalk. Cut them out carefully.

After they're cut, take 8 of your circles and fold each in half, right side out.

Fold in half again. Your circle will look like the photo above.
 
For the ninth circle, fold so the wrong side faces out.

Now, choose your own adventure. You can secure each folded circle with a few stitches on the inner corner, or with a dab of craft glue. Repeat until all nine are secured in this fashion.

Set aside the circle with the wrong side out for later, and line four of your circles up like the photo above.
Overlap the inner points slightly, and secure all four pieces together. If you're using glue, you may find it easier to trace a felt circle and glue your petals down to that.

Your flower should look similar to this.

Repeat this step with your other four petals, so that you have two disc shapes.


Stack the two discs, alternating the side gaps, and secure by hand-sewing or gluing.

Top View

Take your last petal (wrong side out), and set it straight down into the top of your flower. The pointy corner should be pointing to the ground. Stitch or glue it in place.

Now you have your finished flower. If you like the edges frayed, you can rub it briskly against your palm or a pair of jeans. The flower in the next photo has frayed edges.

That's it! Now hurry up and pin it onto something cute!

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