Make Spring Flowers with Fabric Scraps

scrap fabric flowers tutorial

Spring has sprung! Here in the UK the weather has been really quite lovely and spring flowers are out in full force. Today I’m joining the Spring Flowers Craft Blog Hop with some fellow creative bloggers to bring you a collection of crafts with a spring flowers theme.

 
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I’ve made some pretty fabric flowers in spring colours. These flowers can be made in any colours and with pretty much any fabric so they are a fun way to use small scraps of fabric and buttons. I’ve made 2 different types of flowers, both are really simple and quick. You can use them for all sorts of thing. I sewed mine to a bag (the bag tutorial is coming next week) but you could add a safety pin to make a brooch or sew one to a hair clip or hair band. You could even use them as a greeting card topper or sew them to a cushion or pillow cover.

So many options, let’s get started!

Ruffle Scrap Fabric Flowers

You need:

  • A strip of fabric (see size guide below)

  • A button

  • Strong thread

  • A needle and scissors

What you need ruffle.jpg

Tear a long thin strip of fabric, then fray it a little along the long sides. It’s much easier to fray the fabric if you’ve torn it rather than cutting it.

Take a long length of strong thread (or double up regular sewing thread) and tie a knot in one end.

Fold the fabric in half, but not quite all the way (use the photo to see what I mean!) and then sew a running stitch along the folded edge.

When you get to the end, pull the thread up as much as you can and then secure with a few stitches. Don’t cut the thread.

Making a ruffle fabric flower

This next bit is optional. I sewed up the short end of the fabric, just with a double running stitch (a running stitch up and then back down again) If your ruffle is very full you might decide you don’t need to sew the end up.

sew up short end.jpg
how to make a ruffle flower

Sew a button to cover the gap in the middle of the flower. I like to seperate the layers out a bit too, to make the flower a little bit more fluffy. Keep the thread attached, you can now use it to sew your flower onto something.

add button.jpg

You can start with pretty much any size of fabric depending on the size of flower you want.

To give you an idea here are the dimensions of the flowers I made:

Orange Flower: Finished size: 12cm (4.75”) Fabric size: 99cm x 10cm (39” x 4”)

Yellow Flower: Finished size: 7.5cm (3”) Fabric size: 56cm x 7.5cm (22” x 3”)

White Flower: Finished size: 7cm (2.75”) Fabric size: 35cm x 6.25cm (14” x 2.5”)

how to make ruffle flowers

YoYo Flowers

You need:

  • A scrap of fabric

  • A button

  • A bowl to draw round and a pencil or erasable fabric pen

  • A needle and strong thread

  • Scissors

Draw around your bowl and cut out the circle. My bowl is 12cm (4.75”) which gives a finished yoyo flower of 5cm (2”)

Take a long length of strong thread and turning a narrow hem, stitch all around the circle. I used a contrast thread so you can see it but I’d recommend using a matching thread if you have one. Pull the thread up tight and secure with a few stitches.

How to sew a yoyo flower

Flatten the yo yo and then sew a button to the centre. As before, if you leave the thread attached you can use it to sew the yoyo flower to something.

yo yo flower.jpg

That’s it - finished - easy as that, whoop whoop! Now make a load more!

how to make patchwork yo yo flowers

If you have an especially beautiful button knocking around in your button box then adding it to a fabric flower can be a nice way to showcase it. I’ve had this pretty blue china button for ages, waiting for the perfect project.

beautiful button.jpg

So there you have it, two ways to turn small scraps of fabric into pretty flowers. You could play around with the sizes, layer up several flowers. A yo yo layered on top of a ruffled flowers would look fabulous. These are easy enough for both adults and children to make, even if you’ve not done any sewing before. Have fun!

how to make fabric flowers
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Now check out the other spring flowers themed projects my fellow creative bloggers have come up with.

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