Saturday, February 27, 2010

TUTORIAL: Ripin' and Rollin' Flowers

Another Tutorial! Tah dah!

If you had a chance to go to The Sassy Pepper shop, you may have seen these flowers that I used as an embellishment on the too cute headbands.
If step by step pictures isn't enough, I found a great video tutorial here.

Here is the how-to from me!

What you will need:
Cotton or silk fabric of any length (45 inch width)
Any fabric that frays well will give you a great worn vintage look!
Scissors
Fabric glue or hot glue

To get a worn look, you can start by ripping the edge of the fabric. This will also make a true straight edge because it will rip right down the same thread the whole way.
You won't use this piece, go ahead and throw it to the side for another day.

Make a cut about 1 1/4 inches into the fabric, and then rip it again all the way down!
This is the piece you will use for your flower.

Tie a knot at one end.

Snip off the extra fabric.

Fold the fabric in half, and start to roll.


After about three rolls, you will start to twist the fabric as you roll it around. To make it easier, you can come up with a pattern! I used roll, roll, twist... roll, roll twist.

You don't need to glue it every twist, but you should glue often. I glued my fabric on every other twist, and I used hot glue because as you know I LOVE hot glue. :)
The flower will become more squishy as it gets larger.


Before you get to the end of the fabric, you will want to cut the edge diagonally.

Make one more twist and glue the end down.

Snip off any stray threads that you don't want.
You are done!

You can also choose to make your flower a slightly different shape.
Do you want the top and edges rounded like a bud? Or flat?
It all depends on how you hold your flower as you roll and twist.

If you want your flower rounded like a bud, you will hold it around the edge the entire time.
If you want your flower flat then you will hold it on top and bottom squishing it between your fingers like pictured below.

Make more than one, you will want to use many!

Psst: These flowers are for embellishments on items that won't be washed or dried.
If you want to use some on clothing, you will have to get tricky with a needle and thread. :)


Get those flowers blooming!

Cheers,

1 comment:

Kylie said...

You are so creative, Pepper. These are the flowers from your headbands?! So adorable!