Saturday, May 21, 2011

Fabric flowers-two different ways (tutorial)

So today I have a little tutorial to make the fabric flowers that I put on my new lampshade.  They are super easy and both made pretty much the same way.  The biggest difference is one has a knotted center and the other has a rolled center giving it more of a rose look.

 IMG_2174



I started with some white felt, measuring cups (because they were good circle templates), scissors and some white sheets leftover from Ellie's ruffly duvet.

IMG_2127

First cut out some felt circles (they are going to be the back of your flower that nobody will see).  Then cut out some 1/2 inch by about 20 inch strips of whatever fabric you chose for your flower.  I ripped mine into strips because I wanted a shabby look with the little loose threads hanging out.

IMG_2129

Then knot one end of your fabric strip.

IMG_2130

Then I cut the little tail off.

IMG_2131

Glue to the center of your felt circle.

IMG_2132

Then start twisting your fabric and then wrapping around your knotted center putting little dabs of hot glue as you go.

IMG_2133

Twist.  Wrap.  Glue.  Around and around.

IMG_2136

When you run out of felt circle just pull the fabric to the back of the felt circle and hot glue it down.  Snip off any remaining fabric.

IMG_2138

Ta-da!  Easy.

IMG_2140

If you don't like the look of the knotted center you can do a rolled center.  Like the bottom flower and furthest right flower in the photo here.

IMG_2184

You still need the felt circle and fabric strip.  But this time I ironed the fabric strip kind of like making bias tape.  Just take the two raw ends and have them meet each other and iron down.

IMG_2142

Then start rolling the fabric and glueing as you go.

IMG_2146

Until you have a nice rolled portion to use as your center.

IMG_2147

Then start twisting and glueing just like the first fabric flower and glue it to a felt circle same as the first flower.

IMG_2148

Love them.  Added some fun texture to my boring lampshade.

IMG_2174

3 comments:

despar2 said...

Love this! Would like to do this as an art piece for my girls room. Thanks for the great craft!

Jodie said...

Woo hoo. I've been wanting to add flowers like this to a lampshade. Do you think it would work with burlap?

Aleigh said...

Just wanted to take a moment and say THANK YOU for this! I can't sew. At all. SO when I googled how to make no sew fabric flowers, you can imagine the squeel when your blog popped up. I made a few and like you, glued onto a redone lamp shade. Thanks again!

Post a Comment

ShareThis