Tuesday Tutorial--Fast Fabric Flower

Hi :) Today is my day to post at the Polka Dot Whimsy blog. Here is my tutorial:

When I received the January PDW kit I LOVED the large blue fabric flower included! As I added it to my calendar project, I decided to make a smaller flower to go beside it. Several people have asked me how to make it so I thought that would be good material (pun intended) for a tutorial. :)

The flower is super easy to make--especially since the strips of fabric are included in the kit. All you'll need is:

--fabric strip (1 inch x 44 or so inches), sewing machine or needle and thread, glue gun, 1-1/2 inch paper circle

Step 1: Take your fabric strip and fold it in half, right side out. Sew a basting stitch down the side near the cut edges.

Step 2: At one end of the strip, pull your bobbin (or lower) thread and begin to gather the fabric, until you have about an 8-10 inch loose gather. Tie your threads to hold the gather.

Step 3: At the opposite end of the strip, start with a 1/4 inch fold and continue folding/rolling.

Step 5: As you get to the gathered end of the strip, be sure to keep the sewn edge on the bottom of the circle. I slightly move the gathered edges up so they are higher than the center of the circle.

Step 6: Hot glue the gathered end and bottom (raw edges) of the fabric together so they will hold the circular shape.

Step 7: Hot glue your fabric flower to the paper circle. Trim around the paper so it is close to the bottom of the fabric. I layered a thin piece of lace around the bottom to hide the hot glue.

Step 8: Add your sweet flower to a project :)

This is super easy! Let me know if you try it out. I'd love to see the results!
Melanie