How to Make DIY Fabric Flowers

Here in the UK, it’s Mother’s Day next weekend. I usually buy my mum some flowers and make her a handmade card – but this year, I’ve done something a little different… I’ve made some DIY fabric flowers! I always kinda resent buying fresh flowers, since they inevitably die after a few weeks (please tell me I’m not the only one who thinks this?!). But there’s no chance of her flowers dying this year – they’ll be fresh and colourful forever!

This project was a great chance to try out the fabric-cutting capabilities of my new Cricut Maker. Thanks to its rotary cutter extension, it can cut out intricate shapes from cotton, canvas, denim and sooo much more! Alongside the Maker, Cricut have also released a range of printed cotton fabrics, which I’ve used to make my DIY fabric flowers. Click the links in the supplies list below to find out where you can get your hands on them!

(This project was inspired by the “Small Rose” project on Cricut Design Space. I really love Design Space as a source of project inspo and ideas!)

How to Make DIY Fabric Flowers

Tools and Supplies

• Cricut Maker*
• Printed cotton
• Cricut fabric mat
• Roller or brayer
• Sewing machine, or needle and thread
• Pins
• Hot glue gun
• Small ceramic plant pot
• Cricut vinyl
• Wool stuffing or wadding

*You can make this without a Cricut… but the Cricut Maker will speed it up and make it so much easier!

Tutorial

Part one: make the fabric flowers

1. On the Cricut Design Space, create a rectangle measuring 29cm x 4cm. Duplicate this as many times as will fit onto the canvas. Each rectangle will make one DIY fabric flower.
2. Install a rotary cutter into your Cricut Maker.
3. Press your fabric with a hot iron to get rid of any creases, then place it onto the fabric mat. Use a roller to smooth out all of the wrinkles.
4. Load the fabric mat into the Cricut, then cut out the rectangles. Remove all of the fabric rectangles and discard the waste.
5. Next, take one of the fabric rectangles and fold it in half lengthwise, gently pressing the fold flat with your fingers and pin in place (photo B).
6. Sew a loose tacking stitch along the raw edges of the folded fabric (photo C). If you’re using a sewing machine, use the longest straight stitch possible and DO NOT reverse stitch to secure it! If you are hand-sewing, then sew a simple basting stitch. Either way, make sure you leave plenty of excess thread at both ends.
7. Gently pull on one end of the thread, so the fabric starts to ruffle and collect together (photo D). The more you pull it, the more crinkly the fabric flower’s petals will be. Don’t worry about making it perfect right away – just experiment and you’ll soon get a feel for it.
8. With the fabric ruffled, fold over 1cm of each end and sew them flat with a few stitches (photo E), to hide the raw edges.
9. Carefully roll the fabric together in a spiral. You’ll soon see the flower shape forming. When you’ve finished rolling it all, push a pin through the middle to hold it in place (photo F).
10. Add a dab of glue to the bottom of the flower to secure it in place. When it’s dried, remove the pins.
11. Repeat steps 5-10 to build up a collection of flowers. Try using a few different colours to create a colourful bouquet!

From here, you could do anything with your DIY fabric flowers! You could add them to handmade cards, string them into a garland or make a spring-themed wreath. I chose to make a little personalised flower pot for Mother’s Day.

Part 2: Assemble the flower pot

1. Fill a small ceramic plant pot with wadding. I cut a long strip from some recycled wool wadding, then rolled it into a tight coil. I slotted this into the plant pot and held it in place with a few dabs of glue.
2. One by one, glue your DIY fabric flowers on to the top of the wadding. Try to cover all of the surface, so you can’t see the wadding beneath! If you have any gaps, you could always fill them in with a few felt leaves. (I didn’t bother covering the gaps in mine, because my wadding actually looks a little like soil – I quite like the effect!).
3. OPTIONAL: You could also go a step further and use a Cricut machine to cut out a custom message in stick-on vinyl. A nice way to personalise this make!

How effective is that?! I’m amazed at how real my fabric flowers look! I’m sure my mum will love them. And the best bit: they’ll last forever. Win-win!

Thanks so much to Cricut for working with me on this project. The gentle pastel colours of their new cottons were perfect for my flowers – and I’m still obsessing over the Cricut Maker! Head on over to their website now to see what other crafty goodies they have (sorry in advance if you end up wanting to buy everything!).

A very happy Mother’s Day to any mums reading this – but most of all, to my own mum! 🙂 – Mike.

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