DIY Fabric Flowers

Well, the suburban crafter's strike again: "Tackling projects one pin at a time". This month, we were inspired by fabric flower necklaces on Pinterest. The pins I was most inspired by were a braided chain flower necklace, a puff flower necklace and a rolled flower necklace. If you know anything about me, you know I couldn't choose just one!


I started out by making a few of the puff flowers and a few of the rolled flowers. Detailed instructions for making these can be found by following the trails of the Pinterest links above. No need to reinvent the wagon! I will give you a brief description of the project and the supplies needed.
To start, I gathered the following supplies:

• Cloth (I cut up old shirts that no longer fit to save money)
• Hot glue gun
• Felt (for the back of the flowers)
• Chain, clasps and small metal rings (for the necklace)
• Ribbon (if you are going to braid or weave your chain)
• Fabric scissors

Puff Flowers
To make the puff flowers, you need to cut your fabric into circles, and cut a circle of felt the same size. I found that for smaller 1" flowers I needed 10-15 fabric circles, and for larger 2" ones I needed 15-20. It depends on how scrunched you want the flower to look. Next, scrunch up each circle and adhere it to the felt backing using hot glue. Once all the circles are attached you can trim the flower with scissors to even it out. 

Fabric Circle Example

Rolled Flowers
To make the rolled flowers, you need to cut your fabric into a strip about 1" wide. The longer you cut the strip, the bigger the flower will end up. Tie a Knot at one end, and then roll and twist the fabric around the knot, hot gluing along the way. Once you reach the end of your strip, secure it using hot glue, and then glue a fabric felt circle to the back.

Felt Backing Example

When you finish making the your flower you want, attach the small metal ring and you are ready to string it onto your necklace! The nice thing about this is that you can switch out the flower depending on your outfit!

Finished Flowers

Next, I decided to make a ribbon necklace , but instead of  braiding the ribbon, I decided to weave it into the chain. This is personal preference. I tied the ribbon to one end of the chain, and began weaving it in and out of each link using a knitting needle.

Weaving Ribbon Example

Next, I attached my flowers using felt and hot glue to the chain. I wanted the flowers to be attached to this necklace instead of removable so they would sit off center when I wear it. You can decide how you want your necklace to look and customize it from there.

Permanently Attaching Flowers Using Felt

Finished Ribbon Necklace

I still have a few more flowers left to make, but we ran out of time! We did have time to take a group photo, everyone's projects turned out great!