Tutorial: Fabric Flowers

Here is my version of the fabric flower.  I tried to make these directions as easy to follow as possible but ask questions if something doesn't make sense!

1. 
   
   Gather all your supplies.  My fabric strips are 10 inches long and 1 inch wide.  My strips happen to have a pinked edge from a layer cake I used for Ava's quilt.  If you want a finished edge use a piece of fabric that is 10 inches long and 2 inches wide.  Then fold the fabric in half length wise and iron your fold, so now you have a 10 inch x 1 inch piece of fabric like the below picture.

2.  Stitch along the edge of the fabric that will be the center of the flower using a gather stitch.

3.  Gather your embroidery floss tight and tie at least a double knot very securely.  Trim the end of your floss so that you can't see it. 

4.  You will be left with a cute little flower ready to be embellished a zillion different ways.

5.  Hot glue the button of your choice to the center.  You could also do a felt center or really anything to cover the center that tickles your fancy.

6.  Now is where you can make your flower into a clip, a pin, or even a ponytail holder.  I made Ava's into clips.  I bought my clips from Sally's Beauty Supply Store for about $2.50 for 12.  Hot glue your ribbon to the clip.  Glue and wrap the entire outside of the metal clip.  The ribbon also helps the clip stay in her hair.

7.  Hot glue your flower to the clip and you're done!  Super easy right?

Here are 2 of the clips I made.  The flower on the left was made with 10 inches of fabric and the flower on the right was made with 20 inches of fabric.  These are very forgiving flowers so go crazy and experiment with different lengths & widths.  You could make these with a wide ribbon, felt, etc.  The possiblilities really are endless.  Check out Katie's idea of using these to make a spring wreath.

Now go crazy with these fabric flowers and let me know how it goes!!