It is definitely Spring around here! Rain, then hail, scattered sunshine with wind, all in a twenty-minute timespan. So, outdoor gardening is peppered with indoor gardening ;) and by that, I mean making fabric flowers! This week, I made a new Spring pillow and as a sweet embellishment, I added these three-dimensional fabric flowers.
First, you’ll need to get some very flimsy polyester lining fabric (typically sold with the fancy special occasion fabrics). I bought a couple of shades of light pink to alternate my “petals”.
Cut the lightest shade into squares that are 4”, 3”, and 2”. Then, cut the alternate shade into squares that are 3½” and 2½”.
I cut each of these squares into a circle. These do not have to be perfect, the wonkier the better.
Now for the fun part! Light a candle and run the edges of each circle through the flame, just enough to melt the edges and get them to curl and crinkle up. If you accidentally singe it too much and it turns black, just trim that part off and melt again.
Here you can see all my circles lined up according to size. Layer them together starting with the largest one on the bottom and working to the smallest one on top.
I used a straight pin to hold the layers together, then did a little stay stitch using my sewing machine, right in the middle.
Since I was adding these to a pillow, I gathered up a bunch of neutral scrap strips to surround a center square of white. I kept adding rows round and round, Courthouse Steps style, until I had an 18” pillow front panel. Then, I did my super easy and quick straight-line quilting across the whole thing.
The flowers on their own looked cute, but I had visions of stems. I used some green bias-cut fabric I had leftover from another project (ribbon would work great for this part too). I folded the bias strips in half so they were only about ¾” of an inch wide with both raw edges aligned. I decided on a good length for each stem and pinned the raw edges in place.
Stitch down the length of the stems to the right of the center securing the raw edges. Then, press the folded edge of the stem over the stitched seam to hide the raw edge.
Topstitch the folded edge down very, very, close to the edge to finish off the stems.
Pin the flowers over the ends of each stem.
I decided to do some free-motion “seeds” in the center of each flower to hold them in place. I dropped my feed dogs, and used a darning foot, so I could freeform some tiny circles close together in the center of each flower. You could also use buttons or French knots to get the same effect.
Now, isn’t that cute?! Flowers that will never wilt and will never need water!
Happy Sunday everyone,
Krista
Follow all my quilty adventures on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. Visit my Youtube channel for free tutorials and tips. If you like my patterns, you can buy them on Etsy, and here on the website.