Thursday, August 26, 2010

Sew Easy Fabric Flowers


My mom is a quilter and sometimes gives me scraps of the fabrics that she is working with. Recently I was in a flower swap with some crafting friends and decided to use the fabrics to make some flowers. Heather (one of the other Contributing Artists here) encouraged me to share how I made these.


The supplies that you'll need for this are fabric, thread, scissors and a button or other decoration for the center of your flower.


Cut a 4" diameter circle from your fabric. I've included a template that you can download at the end of the post. You can use all the same color or use different colored fabrics. You'll get 4 petals from each circle of fabric. You'll use between 6-16 petals per flower depending on whether you want a double layer or single layer.

Once you've cut your circle, fold the circle in half and cut it. Then fold each of the halves in half again and cut them to create the 4 quarters as pictured above.





Now take each of these triangular pieces and fold them in half, right side of the fabric on the inside and run a stitch about 1/4" from the edge. Turn them right side out. If you'd like to have a decorative stitch on the flower petals, you can use a contrasting thread color to run a stitch along the top (keep the seam in the back of the petals).


If you're not top stitching the petals, you'll have these cute little cone shaped pieces of fabric.




Use a needle and thread to make a running stitch along the open end of the petals. Continue to do this adding each petal until you've added all the petals for that layer of the flower.

Pull tightly on the thread to form it into a flower. Secure it with a couple of back stitches. Leave a length of thread (about 6-8"). You'll use that to secure the top and bottom layers of the flower together.

If you are making a double layer flower, repeat the above steps to make the second layer. Again leave a length of thread. This will be used to attach the button. I used 10 petals for the bottom layer and 6 petals for the top layer. Stitch the top layer to the bottom layer.

Using the length of thread from the top layer, sew on a button. You could use another type of decoration for the center of your flower. Perhaps some gems or beads. Be certain to secure all your threads at the back of your flower out of view. Now you've got a beautiful fabric flower!



You could use these flowers on scrap pages and craft projects. You could also attach them to barrettes, hair scrunchies, hand bags, aprons, or maybe make a brooch out of them. Use your imagination! If you use this tutorial to make flowers, email me at scrappycath@gmail.com. We always love to see what you've created.

You can download the circle pattern HERE

4 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for sharing this Cathy! I really appreciate it!!!

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  2. My daughter-in-law quilts. I think she will love these. I might even try them myself. Thank you.

    bj

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