Finally... A Flower Tutorial

Today I bring to you the long awaited flower tutorial, for the flowers featured in this post. These flowers were inspired by the fabulous Betsy Veldman and her gorgeous creations here. Today I'll share with you how I made mine and turned them into cute hair ties. A couple months ago my son was invited to a birthday party for a friend from his preschool class. These are what I made as the gift...These flowers can be created from either fabric or felt. Here's what you need to get started...

When using felt, die cut four flowers and leaves from the colors of your choice. If using fabric, die cut four or more flowers (the more flowers you use the fuller the finished flower will be). You will also need: thread/embroidery floss, needle, a hot glue gun and hair rubber bands.

Fold the a flower in half, then fold in half a second time, stitch embroidery floss through the base of the folds.

Repeat the steps above. Here's a Note: When threading the folded flowers onto the needle, I alternate the direction of the folds (if you look closely at each flower in the photo above you can get a better idea of what I am talking about).

Pull the embroidery floss through the felt and tie ends together tightly.

Flatten out the back side of the flower and hot glue leaves into place.

Die cut a felt circle and attach with hot glue to cover the leaves and create a clean/flat surface. Here's a Note: Use the same felt backing on fabric flowers as well, it makes for a nice solid base.

At this point you can either attach a pin to the backside (like in this post) to create a broach or jewelry accessory. Or follow the steps below...

Cut a small rectangle of felt, hot glue one end to the flower and let it cool. Place a rubber band under the rectangle and attached the other end with more hot glue.For this yellow flower, I simply flattened the center and stitch a button into the center.

For this star hair tie... die cut a small and large star from colored felt of your choice and stitch together with a button.

For the backside I die cut a second large star, trimmed off a couple ends and then attached over the rubber band.

Here's a Note: When using fabric for your flowers, why not mix and match patterns and colors. The blue flower, pictured above, was created by folding and stitching together solid and pattern fabrics together.

To display these pretties... cut a strip of cardstock, punch notches using a hole punch on either side (being careful to line them up) and then slid the rubber bands over and into the notches.

Well, thanks for stopping by and I hope you found this post helpful.

Maile

Supplies Used:

• Felt: Raspberry Fizz, Simply Chartreuse, Harvest Gold and Fine Linen
• Dies: Beautiful Blooms II #1 & 2 Die Collection, Delightful Dahlia Collection & Seeing Stars Collection
• Cardstock: Kraft
• Others: Simply Chartreuse & Hibiscus Burst Vintage Buttons, Hair Rubber bands, Hot Glue, Hot Glue Gun, DMC Embroidery Floss & 1/4" Hole Punch