Flowers are everywhere on crafts.
They are used as embellishments on cards, on hair clips and for decorating picture frames. They add a spot of color pinned in clusters on a T-shirt or sewn in a border onto a pillow. Stick your blossoms on a floral wire and use them as a centerpiece for your next party. Make them out of white silk ribbon or tulle, and decorate a wedding headband or wristband.
The riot of colors and patterns I’ve seen lately made me think of the crazy-quilt calico flowers my mom used to make. They are easy to make and don’t require any sewing skill — other than to use a running stitch with a needle and thread. They don’t require a lot of fabric, either, so you can use scraps you may already have.
There is no set size for these flowers.
Start by using an 8-by-3-inch rectangle of fabric or thin ribbon, and sew one at this size first to see how you’d like to adjust the size for your own project. Turn each end in 1/2 inch to the wrong side of the fabric. You can secure with a small running stitch, or just iron.
Then fold the fabric in half lengthwise, wrong side to wrong side. Opposite the folded edge, place a knot in your thread at one end and sew a running stitch with a double thread along the raw-edged length. When you get to the end, pull the thread and gather the fabric along the thread.
To make a “cupped” flower, bunch the flower in your fingers and sew several times across the bottom of the flower, then wrap the thread around the bottom and secure the ends together with a stitch and a knot. If you are putting stems on the flowers, sew them onto a loop of wrapped floral wire.
Now sew a button or pearls into the middle. You can also glue a pompom, rhinestones or decorative brad (minus the tabs) to the middle. If you choose to make your blossoms flat, just don’t pull the gathering thread as tightly, and skip the thread-wrapping along the bottom. If using ribbon to make these flatter flowers, you won’t need to fold the ribbon in half.
You can also make ribbon leaves to tuck into your arrangement. Start with a 2-by-2 1/2-inch piece. At midpoint, fold each side at 45 degrees, creating a peak. Iron. Fold the raw ends into the middle and iron. Gather the bottom and secure with a stitch. The other side, without the folds showing, is your leaf.
Felt also makes great fabric flowers. Some die-cutting tools such as a Cricut or Sizzix will cut flower shapes from thin felt. Or just find a shape you like, trace it onto your felt and cut it out with your scissors. Easiest of all is to cut graduated-sized circles. At one-quarter marks on your largest circle, cut Vs. Then put a smaller circle of felt in the middle and embellish with felt leaves and/or a button in the center.
Your craft projects will really blossom with these blooms to brighten them — and the most difficult part of making them may be threading your needle!
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