If you can’t tell by my posts from the past 30 days or so, I am trying to use a stash of felt that I found in my fabric box. At some point I bought quarter yards of a bunch of different felt and never really used it. Well it is the new year and one of the things that I do (and everyone else tends to do too) is try to organize my life—yeah like that is possible. Even though I do it every year and it only last a month or two I still find myself trying to be organized come Jan. 1.
Oh well, I have gone off on a tangent. Back to the tutorial, basically I have been trying to figure out what I can make with this stash of small pieces of felt so you might be getting a few more felt flower projects until I use it all! I hope you enjoy the sunflower.
Supplies
1/4 Yard felt*
Button (preferrably a shank style)
Hot glue gun
Scissors
Needle & Thread (I would use a heavier duty thread since it the flower needs gathering)
Pin back
*I used two different colors and honestly from a quarter of a yard you will probably be able to make several flowers. If the felt is 45″ long you can probably even get away with an 1/8th of a yard.
- Print out the pattern below and cut out 7 large petals, 7 medium petals, 6 small petals, 1 pin cover and 1 base from the felt. (Use the scale to make sure the print out is the correct size).
- Thread you needle, making sure the thread is about 24″ long. Double up the thread and knot the end. Starting with a large petal put a gather stitch along the flat side of a petal, halfway through add a second petal on top of the other petal and continue to gather stitch the bottom. You will continue stitching along the bottom, adding new petals until all your large petals are sewn. When you get to the last petal only sew half way across the flower, stopping at the center. Do not tie or gather yet.
- Take a medium petal and put it on top of the last large petal, making sure to overlap the petal starting at the half way mark of the larger petal underneath. Gather stitch the bottom sewing the petals together. Continue adding new medium petals to the top of the previously stitched petals. Sew all the medium petals together in a chain. When you get to the last petal only sew half way across the flower, stopping at the center. If the thread is getting short lightly gather the petals to allow for more working room.
- Okay, you should have the hang of this by now, repeat step 3 with the small petals. But instead of stopping at the last petal continue to sew to the end.
- Pull on the thread to gather the petals. Be careful not to pull to hard! You do not want to break the thread. When all the petals are gathered tie off the end—BUT DO NOT CUT THE THREAD.
- Starting with the small petal end (where the needle and thread are), wrap the petals in a circle. Stay stitch the petals in place.
- Continue wrapping the petals around till it forms a flower. Stay stitch the flower shape in place. I usually put a set of stitches around the entire center circle.
- Hot glue (or sew) the button to the front center of the flower.
- Hot glue the base to the back of the flower.
- Hot glue the pin to the center of the base circle.
- Hot glue the heart over the pin back.
