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!
Hi, love the tutorial, I used to make these when I was younger. May I ask where you got your wreath hanger in the photo in front of the banister? You also have one on your door that I love. I have been looking for stuff like that for a long time. It would be perfect!
I found that at Craft Warehouse several years ago, but they seem to always have them!
Very,very pretty, have not tried this project yet but going to give it a darn good try,thank you:)
This tutorial was great. I pinned ya!
I love the rolled fabric flower as a hair accessory! I am sharing a link to this tutorial on my blog later today!
Helen
Blue Eyed Beauty Blog
I am totally in love and OBSESSED with making these. thanks so much for sharing 🙂 I am making these and some other types of flowers for breast cancer awareness auctions at work in october to raise money and am so HAPPY I can.
Thanks again x a million!
Thanks for your tutorial!! I just made one for my grandma for mother’s day!
This is adorable! I have the wreath…now I just need to find the fabric. Any idea how much fabric is needed to make a wreath similar to the one pictured? Never purchased fabric before, so I’m not sure how to estimate. Thanks!
I am so happy to find your site; our sweet daughter-in-law, our son and our first grandson (“Noah” 4mos) were visiting a couple of weeks ago. They mentioned they wanted to fix dinner for us one night, and to my surprise, after my sister and I got home from running errands, dinner was ready “Potato Soup and homemade rolls”, even though they could not find our mixer. My husband has commented about the delish dinner several times. When I asked for the recipe, she simply gave me your website. I asked for her recipe because needless to say, it was MUCH better than mine. Thank you sooooo much, especially for your example.
These are great! Thanks for the tutorial!
I made a wreath like you made for Halloween, I loved it so made a different one for Christmas using hunter green tulle and the flower made from ribbon and a bird and neighbors loved it. I purchased your calendar and cook book and love to finally sit down in the evening and read the cook book. You gals have some of the best recipes. Keep them coming.
hi! I’m doing a wreath roundup on Monday and am going to feature YOU! Hope you can stop by and check it out. Grab a featured button if you want. http://nap-timecreations.blogspot.com/
I’ve been making aprons and Roman shades, my daughter made wrap around hand protectors for hot coffee cups..we have lots of scraps left over here on the farm! This is the perfect use for them, thanks!
Ok here is my next fabric project!!! Thank you so much for your great ideas!!!
What size wreath did you use? I’m asking because the one red flower on the Left is HUGE :). These have been a TON of fun thank you for giving me a reason to hoard scraps! xo
Brittany, I’m not sure exactly because it’s put away in storage now, but I think it was a 12 or 14 inch wreath? That IS a big flower on the left!
I made these and I absolutely LOVE them. You can do so many different things with them.
Kells
backpocketcreations.blogspot.com
I bought some fabric today and made some very cute flower hair clips! A lot of fun to make, the hardest part was picking out the fabric, but I am excited to make more!
I am having a baby girl in June and I have been looking for cute flowers. These are super CUTE! -Kellie from backpocketcreations.blogspot.com
I absolutely love this wreath and I’m dying to make one of my own. Can you tell me where you got the decorative pearls?
I think I will try an experiment and see if I can make other flowers. Perhaps I will make single twist loops for petals and glue the raw ends to a large button to make a sunflower or daisy, if you can picture what I mean. How exciting! Thanks again for sharing.
I absolutely love these. Thanks so much for sharing!! My mind is spinning with possibilities. I just made a bedroom set for my little girls and am going to use some of the leftover scraps to make some of these to put on the ends of their curtain ties and maybe on the corners of their quilts! Completely cool! I think I will be using this for my Christmas gifts this coming year. Good way to get rid of my scraps.
Love it! Now I want to make one for Spring!
So cute! I made mine into a Valentines wreath: http://kaidandjenny.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-ive-been-up-to-lately.html
Thanks SO MUCH for posting this great tutorial! These flowers are fantastic & I love how the ideas for them are endless! I can't wait to make my own wreath now! 😀
ooh, a bouquet *would* be awesome! The flowers are flat, so you'd have to glue them on to something. Hmm…I'd have to think about that one!
So my girlfriend was thinking that these would make a totally cute wedding bouquet. Any idea on how to get them to look like a bouquet?
OOO thanks!!
Vanessa- for the pin you can just glue it on. For the clip, you want the bottom side of the clip to be *under* the felt and then the top clips down on top of it. Does that make sense? You can kind of see it in the picture with the black flower.
Violaine- Gorgeous!!
Thanks ! here is mine …
http://photobyviolaine.blogspot.com/2010/12/couronne-de-noel-diy.html