Fabric Flower Tutorial/Video

Over the last couple of months I’ve posted various projects on my blog that have included a little fabric flower—those little flowers have generated interest on how to make them. Since this is my month to hostess the monthly challenges over at ACP, (I’ve been doing vintage themed challenges and swaps), I thought it’d be a good time to share my version of how I make them.

I learned how to make this flower with a group of friends during a kind of “show and tell” flower making day at my friend Kathie’s house. It was a fun day and we learned how to make several types of flowers. Kathie told me she learned how to make this particular flower from an E-Workshop she took from Teresa McFayden. I’ve never taken one of these E-Workshops, I may have to try one!

I wonder if you’ll be as resistant to learning how to make this flower as I was.  Because this flower involved hand sewing, it wasn’t one of my favorite flowers to make that day. I was pretty resistant to picking up the needle and thread – but I did try it. And after I did it, I thought, nope, not gonna make that one again --- too confusing…where to start, which sides to stitch, my thread kept knotting up, which strings to pull first? don’t pull too tight…definitely confusing for someone that already didn’t want to pick up a needle and thread! My first flower looked pretty bad and I’m pretty sure it ended up in the trash as it didn’t resemble a flower at all…more like a crumpled bundle of fabric. I thought to myself, I’ll stick with heat-gun flowers! Quick and easy.

As the months passed, Kathie kept making these large, beautiful flowers (larger than I would use on my projects…another reason I didn’t need to learn it, right?) and putting them on various fabric projects like bags and purses or making pins out of them. The more I saw them, the more I was willing to take up that needle and thread and give it a try again.

I posted the picture of this little muslin flower on my blog last month.  It's the same sewn fabric flower.   I remember showing the flower to Kathie, and she said I had to show her how to make it. I laughed and told her that she is the one that taught me how to make it!  So you see, you can make these flowers look different depending on how large or small you make them, how tightly you pull the threads, and how you embellish them when you’re done. Adding a flower center creates a different look.

We all have different ways of learning. And, as I made more of them, I  developed my own version/style that I found easier to make.  So this video shows a slightly different way of making the flower than the original way I was shown. Hopefully, you won’t be as resistant to giving it a try as I was.

Supplies needed:
Needle and thread—coordinating color is preferable but not necessary

Square of fabric (4x4, 5x5 works best to begin with)
*lightweight, soft fabrics works best…think muslin, velvet, organza…or recycle clothes headed for donation. Kathie and I like looking for inexpensive velvet children clothing at yard sales and thrift stores. I’ve also made these flowers with a wide sheer (removing the wire first), fabric ribbon, died and scrunched coffee filters, napkins and paper towels.  The end of the video shows samples of some of these as well.

And while making this video yesterday, I discovered an even easier version of making this flower, (easier if you’ve already been making them…but maybe not if you’re new to making these)…it involves less sewing…so to me that’s easier. Here are a couple of practice ones I did...not too bad...maybe I’ll do another video on that one too.

So, what do you think? Are you gonna give it a try?

Glimmer Glam and Glimmer Mist Textured Backgrounds

Today, I posted this beach project as my monthly post for the Tattered Angels Educator’s Blog. You can see the steps for preparing the glass for this project HERE.

Here on my blog, I will show you the steps, in pictures, to make the textured background. The steps are the same for both the beach project and the halloween project pictured here. Only the colors used were different, as well as the project background. For the beach project, I used a microscope slide holder (which is several layers of chipboard pressed together). For the halloween project, I used a recycled Tattered Angels Embossed Chip Tile. I also tried this technique on regular chipboard, but it buckled in the middle. I will try using regular chipboard again, but next time, I’ll be sure the layers are completely dried before moving to the next step.

Here's how I made the textured background for the halloween cover.

Start with a Tattered Angels Chip Tile (I recycled used ones from Expo).



Use a paint brush to add Glam to the edges (be generous)....



Heat until bubbly...

Add a second glam color...and a third color if you want (which I did)

heat again until bubbly

Spray some glimmer mist on top and heat to dry quickly...

Add a couple of more glimmer mist colors that compliment your project...and heat to dry...

I got a little heavy-handed with that Fully Purple Glimmer Mist, so I added a little more Paprika Glam and heated it again. Basically, you just keep layering color until you like it...



And after that last addition of Paprika Glam, I liked it...so I stopped!

 I did the same thing for the backside of the chip tile. Except, this time, I decided I didn’t need to put glam all over the chip tile, because I’ll just be covering it with a picture. So, instead, I first attached a black mat to the chip tile (and you’ll have to hold this down with your scissors or something while heating, otherwise the heat will want to lift the mat---remember that for the next time you’ve glued a paper to your project and then decide you don’t want it there…use your heat gun to get it off).

 
and the end result using the same layering technique..

 
Here are a couple of other pages from the book...

and a few close-ups...

 
Hope you enjoyed this and will give it a try...now go play!