Flower Fabric Tutorial

I am sorry to be getting this out to you so late, but we have been busy watching little ones and having very little uninterrupted computer time.

There are more than a million ways to make fabric flowers, but this is a way that I find easy to do.  Again, there are many shapes that you can use to portray different flowers.  My basic idea for flowers is that they should have 5, 7 or 9 petals.  I'm sure that can be subjective as well.

I start off with a 2 inch square piece of paper for my pattern.  On this one, I have rounded off two corners.

With two layers of fabric(the same or two blended colors) - right sides together - cut out however many pairs of petals that you would like.

At this point take them to the sewing machine and sew from the base up and around, returning to the base using about a 1/8th inch seam.  Be sure to leave the bottom open to turn your fabric.

Trim the corners and gently turn inside out.  

Iron each petal flat and arrange in the order that you want to sew them together.

Now, I switch my sewing machine to a narrow zig zag stitch - about a three on the sewing machine.  Taking the first petal, I lay a piece of crochet thread at the beginning of the petal, about 1/4 inch from edge and start to enclose the thread within the zig zag stitch.  Secure the stitching at the beginning of the first petal and at the end of the last petal.

Continue to sew across the first petal and then add the next one immediately following it.  You will do this for each petal.  Be sure to not stitch into the crochet thread - only encase it between the zig zags.

Remove the chain from the sewing machine and pull the crochet threads from both ends and tie ends together in a tight knot.  Your petals should now look like a flower.

Next, you will cut a piece of fabric for the center.  I used a piece of fabric that was 8 inches long by 3/4 inch wide.  Using small scissors cut one long edge with frequent little snips to a depth of 1/4 inch.

Since this is such a small piece, I used a gathering stitch on my sewing machine - a #5 - and gathered the opposite edge of the 8" edge that I just cut.  You will now have one long edge gathered and one long edge snipped.  Got it????

Okay....now pull those gathered stitches together and tie.  Be sure to pull the same thread from both sides (ie. the top thread or the bottom thread)  You now have your center done.

To finish the flower off you will find a nice button.  From the back of the flower petals, you will sew the three pieces together - petals, center and then button.  Secure all three and tie off all threads.

Add a pin and you are done.  YEAH!!!  Now you can add it to bags, jackets or whatever suites your fancy.  If you want to wear them in your hair, you can add a hair clip instead of a pin. 

As I said, there are so many shapes that you can play with and the options are endless.  For my sunflower, I cut a pattern with a pointed shaped petal and used a 3 1/2 inch circle for the center.  With the center, I gathered the circle, added a little fiberfill stuffing and pulled the circle closed.  I then sewed a few glass seed beads scattered about the stuffed ball. 

You can also use strips of ribbon that are folded in half and used as a petal. In the following flower I cut a piece of fabric 11"x2".  I then sewed the two long edges, right sides together, turned inside out and ironed to form a ribbon look.  I cut that piece into 5 - 2 inch pieces and continued with the same process.  As I said, the options are endless.

I would love to see any flowers that you make.  I know they will be gorgeous so have a blooming good time.