CREATE: Blog

Tutorial – fabric flowers

May 12th, 2010 Jeri Huish

7 comments

Freshen up a plain headband, make fancy baby barrettes or add a perfect detail to pillows with fabric flowers. This tutorial will show you how to make 3 different types of flowers with one simple technique.

- Scraps of cotton fabric
- Needle and coordinating thread
- Straight-edge fabric scissors
- Decorative-edge fabric scissors (I used pinking shears)

1. Cut your fabric to approximately 2 x 8″ (this is a good size for a headband flower, cut it smaller for barrettes and larger for bigger applications, like pillows.)

2. Use the needle to fray one long edge of your fabric. Pull up one or two threads at a time and pull them from the length of the fabric.

3. Sew a simple basting stitch along the long, non-frayed edge

4. When you have sewed all the way to the end, pull the thread tight. The fabric will ruffle up. Stitch the two ends together to make a complete circle.

Vary the look of the flower by cutting the fabric strip with decorative-edge scissors. For this flower I cut about 2/3 of the way through the strip and frayed all the edges.

This flower uses the same technique, only I used pinking shears to trim the fabric.

This strip looked so wonky and weird when I was cutting the scallops that I was a little worried, but it ended up being my favorite!

You can trim off your threads and finish your flower here, or you can add beads, jewels or buttons to the center to add some extra bling. Or you can repeat the process with another pattern of fabric (or tulle!) to dress up your flowers even more.

These make such a pretty hair accessory for my kindergartner and they’re so easy to whip up, I can match one to her outfit while she’s having her cereal in the morning. Also great for those “how many birthday parties were you invited to?” emergencies. Pretty much there is nothing to limit your creativity but the quantity of fabric scraps you have on hand. Trip to the fabric store anyone?

Jeri Huish

Crafting is a huge creative outlet for me. I love handmade items of all varieties, but I really like making things that can be worn or used - you will usually find me sewing an apron, making a bracelet or stocking up on thank-you and birthday cards.

I work as a graphic designer for all 4 Northridge publications and you can read my Real Life article in Scrapbook Trends every month. Working for crafting magazines is definitely a double-edged sword. While I love being able to work in this fun, creative and vibrant industry, there is constantly a mountain of 'unfinished', 'to be started' and 'CUTE - I must make that!' projects that may someday take over our entire home. Until that day- happy crafting!