flower pin/clip tutorial

Better late than never . . . I like that phrase.  I'm not sure how true it is though.  It's probably better to be on time . . . maybe even a few minutes early.  But that's not my point.

You see, back in July I started making these by the bucketful:

I took pictures thinking that I would make a tutorial, but then I started seeing fabric flowers EVERYWHERE . . . seriously . . . I'm pretty sure that having a craft blog requires doing a fabric flower tutorial.  I decided that there was really no need to add another flower pin/clip tutorial to the plethora out there. 

However, a few weeks ago when I showed the deep cowl-neck scarf that I made with one of the flower pins attached, I actually started getting e-mails requesting a tutorial.  And YOU KNOW that I CAN'T resist a tutorial request.  This flower is super easy to make with no sewing-machine skills needed!  Woo hoo!

So here it is:

The Flirty Fabric Pin/Clip Tutorial
for personal, non-commercial use only

Here's what you need:
~a variety of fabric scraps
~pinking shears
~very long piece of embroidery thread
~button
~safety pin or small clip
~felt scraps
~felt/fabric glue

Here's what you do:
1)  Trace and cut a variety of circle sizes from scraps with pinking shears.  Each circle should be smaller than the one before it.  Five circles makes a super flirty full flower, but I ended up using four in this example.  Cut out a smaller circle in the center of each circle.

2)  Use needle and embroidery thread and sew a long running stitch around the smaller center circle of each fabric circle that you will be using.

3)  Flip the circle over so you are looking at the underside.  Pull thread to gather circle tight.  Tie knot and push needle up threw center of gathered circle.

4)  Use same needle and thread to make another long running stitch on the next smaller circle.  Pull tight on the underside of the circle.  Tie knot.  Push need and thread threw center.  Follow this same process with each circle for as many layers as you want.

5)  On the last layer, push your needle and thread threw so that it is coming at the top center of the stacked flower.  Slide button onto needle.  Push button down so that it is flush again the stacked fabric circles.  Sew button on.

6)  Turn flower over so that you are looking at the underside of the flower.  Cut two small rectangles of felt with pinking shears. Use felt/fabric glue to attach one rectangle to underside center of flower.  Place pin or clip on top of this rectangle and glue second rectangle on top.  Then add an embroidery stitch around the edge of the rectangle. (I ended up having no good pics of the original flower I started with for this step, so please excuse the random pic of a different flower.)

Done!  You can see more examples of colors and styles in my super lame Etsy shop!  ;)

Craft on!


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Friday - The Sabby Nest, A Little Knick Knack, Fingerprints on the Fridge, It's Fun to Craft!, It's a Hodgepodge Life, Kojo Designs, Simply Sweet Home, Frou Frou Decor, Remodelaholic, Mommas Kinda Crafty