No-Sew Fabric Flower Tutorial

Confession: I may have just a teensy bit of a sewing phobia. It’s not that I haven’t tried. My mother-in-law is an amazing seamstress, and she has patiently tried to teach me to sew on many occasions; however, I always seem to revert back to my comfort zone and find ways to avoid the sewing machine altogether.

Because of my phobia, these flowers and I have become BFF’s. They are cute. They are easy. They involve no sewing. Therefore they are amazing. 🙂 To get started, you only need a few things:

• Fabric of your choice
• Button/Gem/Sparkly Doodad (Yes, doodad is actually a word. No, I was not born in 1920. ;))
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun (with glue sticks, obviously)
• Felt (optional)

In sticking with my “Frugal in February” theme, I used only items I already had on hand. I had fabric leftover from another craft, and I dug through my drawers to find some of those extra buttons that they give you in a little plastic baggie when you buy a new sweater. Yay for a FREE project!

Ok, on to the flowers. Start by cutting out 7 circles that are the same size. I traced a glass to make my circles, and they ended up about 3.5″ wide. (Your flower will be approximately as wide as you make your circles.)

You will also need one smaller circle to act as the base for your flower. If you have felt, I would recommend using it for your base circle because it’s usually not as flimsy as the fabric you will be using for the rest of the flower.

Once you have your circles cut out…

…you can start folding your “petals.” I have done this two different ways. You can simply fold it in half and then in half again, which creates a flatter, triangle shape.

Or you can fold your circle in half, then fold one third of it to the front and another third to the back, creating an “S” shape, for a “puffier” looking flower.

(See the “S”? Good.)

Now you get to bust out your trusty hot glue gun. You will begin gluing your “petals” to the base circle, pointy parts in the middle (A). Once you have four petals glued to your base, add a second layer with the remaining petals (B).

Tip: Depending on the type of fabric you’re using, you may need to put a small dab of hot glue in the folds of your petal to keep them from unfolding. Be sure to do this near the point of the petal so that you can still get a nice, full shape to your flower.

You’re almost done! It’s starting to look like a flower, right? Now you just need to choose a button/jewel/sparkly doodad and hot glue your center onto the flower. (Or, if you’re really brave, you can use a needle and thread. Yikes!) Poof up your layers a little bit, and congratulations! You just completed your first fabric flower! You deserve a medal. Or at least some ice cream. 🙂

If you went with the “fold in half, then fold in half again” method, your flower will probably look something like this:

And if you went for the poofier “S”-shaped method, you’ll have a flower similar to this one:

Both methods work like a charm. You’ll just have to decide which one you like better! (Decisions, decisions!)

I made some of each and am going to combine them on an upcoming project.

Curious to see what I did with them? You’ll just have to check back and see! (Agh, the suspense is killer, right?! ;)) Thanks for visiting this simple little tutorial! Come back soon!