Believe it or not, this actually does relate to food, so stick with me here! A couple of weeks ago I showed you a peek of my Christmas decorating and I had several requests for a tutorial on the wreath I made. I’ve made lots of fabric flowers before, but I hadn’t thought to put them on a wreath until I saw this one in one of my email newsletters from Living Locurto. I had cute Christmas fabric laying around because I like to buy these pre-cut quarters to use on top of jars (like Peppermint Fudge Cupcake Jars, or Pie in a Jar, or buttermilk syrup, hot fudge sauce, and sugar scrub as gifts)
so this was a perfect use for the left overs! Here’s a quick how-to on the flowers and then I’ll show you how you can use them. (Thanks to my girl Trish for being my hand model. Her hands actually make an appearance in our cookbook as well. She peels a mean piece of ginger!)
Supplies:
Fabric* (1″ ribbon works well too)
fabric glue (I don’t recommend hot glue unless you’ve got tough fingers!)
optional: pins or clips
*The color of the fabric is more important than the actual pattern on it. Once the flowers are rolled you don’t even see the pattern, just the colors.
First you need to cut a strip of fabric about an inch to an inch and a half wide. The length determines the final width of the flower. A 24″ strip makes a flower about 1″ wide. If you don’t have a very long strip of fabric, that’s okay, you can use more than one short strip on a single flower, I’ll explain in a minute.
Fold your strip in half so the right side is on the outside and it’s long and skinny. Place some fabric glue about 2″ down like this: (I use Unique Stitch or Liquid Stitch glue)
Now just roll it right up. This will be the center of the flower. I roll it about 7 or 8 times, just eyeball it.
Keep your glue close by. Hold the center with one hand and with the other start twisting your fabric around the center, placing a dab of glue every so often to hold it together. You can twist the fabric as little or as much as you like, just play around with it and you’ll see what I mean.
Then just keep going around and around… The cut edges will expose little threads which just add to the charm!
When you get to the very end just glue the end of your fabric to the back side of the flower. And if you want the flower larger. Make a new strip and glue the start end to the back of the flower and continue on as you were. This one below I used 2 strips of 22″ fabric on.
When you’re all done you can do whatever you want with them. I just used craft glue to glue them to a cheap grape vine wreath, along with some berries
and a little birdie, can you spy him?
But there’s lots of uses for these cute little things. For example, get some pins or clips from the craft store and glue them on the back using a piece of felt. (I couldn’t find my felt so I’m just using a clip I already have made to show what I mean)
Sometimes you end up with a “stem” of sorts (shown below). If you need a flatter flower, just trip it off with a good pair of scissors. Other times a stem like that is helpful, like when gluing to my wreath.
Anyway, when your flowers are done you can do lots of fun things with them,
like package up Christmas goodies (See?? I told you this had something to do with food!) and clip or pin one (or several) on the packages. They’re easy to attach to the ribbon, or also the actual gift tag.
They look totally adorable, but then your gift-ees will be so excited that they can pull them off and use them! They look super cute pinned onto a hat
or attached to a scarf
or clipped in your hair
Or on a bag or purse or lapel. I mentioned in my other post that these are a great tv project. It’s really just busy work rolling and gluing, rolling and gluing, rolling and gluing, so pop in a good movie and you’ll be surprised at how many you have done at the end! Happy crafting!
I'm not sure how to get the flower to stick to a pin or clip. I've put felt on the back of the flower, but how to attach to a metal object? Aleene's Tacky Glue? Help!
(These are uber cute…I'm sure with practice mine will look better…)
Bubbles- I buy them in the fabric section of fabric and craft stores (mine are from craft warehouse). They're called quarters and you should be able to find them most places. I'm pretty sure they're for quilting (shows what a seamstress I am! haha)
Great idea, I was wondering where could I buy these pre-cut sheets of fabric you were talking about? The fabric shop, Michael, craft stores?
My mom and I used to make these too! I was so excited when I started seeing little girls wearing them in their hair! Oh and I love the wreath!
Thanks for this tutorial…I can't wait to make a few flowers!
I can't wait to try to make these! I think it will be a great project for me and my BBBS, Little Sister. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for the Rolled Fabric Flower tutorial. This looks like an easy affordable project to do with my daughters this Christmas season. What brand of fabric glue did you use?
See, and my white fabric glue is actually *less* tacky than the clear one I have, but I like it better. I guess it just depends! Hopefully you can find one that works well. For me, since you have to glue often, I just like one that comes out of the tube easily and bonds quickly. Hope you find one that works well for you!
Yes, it's fabric glue. Although it's clear glue, and I did notice you said in another comment to use white glue so maybe that's the problem! I will try to get my hands on a different brand. Thanks!
Jen are you using fabric glue? Sounds like you just need a different type. I hold them for maybe 15-20 seconds at the very end to make sure the end stays tucked under, but they stay together just fine. I would just try another type of glue.
These are great, and the wreath is totally adorable. I went out and got a grapevine wreath and some fabric ribbon today (the craft store near us doesn't carry fabric and I don't use fabric much myself.) I've made a couple flowers so far that have turned out nicely, but I'm having trouble getting the glue to set. Do you pin them or something while they dry to keep their shape? The glue I have takes a long time to set and I've had to hold them for a good 10 minutes or so before letting go or else the whole thing unravels. And even then they don't always stay together.
Very cute! I use these all the time. I use hot glue and it works great. Just a little hot initially. 🙂
Yay!!!!Thank you so much for the tutorial! I have been sewing Christmas projects all week so I have scraps sitting here waiting. 🙂 I think I'm going to put somelittle ones on a sweater I have that needs some sprucing up…of course they'll go on packages too!
These are really cute, and so easy. I will be trying them for lots of things. Thanks!
That wreath is freaking cute!
Sturgmom- you should be gluing enough as you go around that if the end came undone for some reason the flower would still stick together. You glue a lot! Every couple of twists of the fabric.
Jaime- which giveaway? If you're talking about the silhouette, then yes, the winner has already claimed her prize.
Question. Was the giveaway winner already announced?
I'm going to try these flowers. Keep the crafty ideas coming!
What an awesome idea! I <3 it! Great way to use up all that left over fabric that accumulates at times. Thanks for posting 😉
i bet you could brush them lightly with mod podge on the back to keep them from unraveling. but i use mod podge for everything…
What a fabulous (and useful) tutorial!! It's posts like these that make me wish craft stores were open in the middle o the night!
Do you do anything special to make sure the end doesn't start coming unglued and unravel the entire flower?
You both are so talented and I appreciate that you didn't let those talents go to waste and are so willing to share with all of us 🙂 Thanks!
Queen Mum- I hear ya. I do that too! for these flowers I've been using Unique Stitch
(http://www.amazon.com/Dritz-Unique-Stitch-Stitchless-Sewing-1-1/dp/B001685U78/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291515270&sr=8-1)
It's a white glue with a consistency like elmers. I tried a clear fabric glue the other day that just made a big sticky mess!
So adorable! Love the wreath.
What brand of fabric glue do you use? I am always choosing the wrong adhesive for my projects 🙁
I love the wreath idea and I also think this would be a super cute stocking stuffer as a bunch of different barrettes. Thanks for sharing!!
This ROCKS!!! Love it and can't wait to start making tons of them for too many ideas in my head.
LOVE the wreath you made with the rolled flowers – the colors are gorgeous!
Wow! These are great. I'm itching to get started.
oops..I really need to proof read before I send!
My mom and us use to make these years ago when we were little…we decorated our Christmas gifts with them and one was always placed on a jar of her jam or home made pears along with a felt leaf and a note with warm Holiday wishes…years later I found out that the reason she had us kids make these was to keep us busy and out of her hair!!!!…LOL So now when ever I see these I think of my mom and her creative mind as to how to keep three bored fighting kids out of her hair during the holidays! Yours turned are really pretty on the wreath!
these are sooo cool!!! I want to make my very own wreath now!
thanks for the tutorial!
I loved your wreath made with cloth rolled flowers. Thanks for sharing~~~