a few more fabric flower ideas and how-to

Here are some flowers I made for the some "spring" on our mantle. I did not cut them on the bias this time since I did not have enough fabric to do so. I thinik the edges make them rustic looking and since I don't think I'll need to wash these, it was fine (I actually might wash one to see what happens, but after Easter!) I remember my mom making fabric flowers for bridesmaids' dresses in the 80's (you know when flowers cascaded down one shoulder of the dress?)

Here's how I did it.

cut strips of fabric (mine were about 2-2.5 " wide and 14-16" long, but I did not measure). Like I said above you can do it on the bias (which I prefer) if you want them washable and un-ravel-abel or just along the grain.

Machine sew along one edge with the largest stitch you have.

Leave a little bit of a "tail" on the end of the thread, from which you will pull to gather the fabric.

Gently pull one of the threads to start gathering the fabric. Do not pull too hard. You don't want the thread to break. It will look like this once it is all gathered.

After it is all gathered stick a needle and thread straight through the bottom catching all layers.

Turn a quarter turn and sew through the other side. Repeat this a few times.

Clip some branches

Sew the flowers on the branches with invisible thread. Or glue gun them on, if you prefer.

Place in a vase and voila, you are done!  Pretty easy, huh?

Here are some "corsage" flowers I made.

This one is out of felt.  I just attached them with a safety pin on the back.

Here is the same kind as my pillow flowers.