A few weeks ago Goodwill Mansfield celebrated its 50th Anniversary. In honor of the celebration there was food, raffles, face painting, and an awesome craft table (wink wink!)
At the craft table, I taught people how to make DIY, no-sew fabric flowers to decorate a vase. Shoppers, local news reporters and Goodwill employees liked the craft so much that we thought we should share it with you, just in time for Valentine’s Day!
Supplies you’ll need:
- Fabric
- Vase
- Hot Glue
- Fabric Scissors
- Floral Wire
For my fabric I bought a collection of pink shirts and a lace curtain from Goodwill.
Goodwill always has a huge selection of vases. Take your pick!
Step 1: Cut a Strip of fabric to wrap around your vase. It can be as tall or as short as you want, just make sure it will wrap all the way around the vase with a little extra for folding and gluing.
Step 2: Cut a long strip of fabric approx. 20” long and 1.5” wide. Depending on the size of your fabric you may not be able to cut a piece 20” long. If that’s the case, cut two shorter strips then glue them together to make one long strip.
Step 3: To create the rolled flowers start by making a tight bud for the center. Simply fold your strip in half once (secure with a dab of glue), then fold it again (secure with a dab of glue), and tightly roll the fabric around the center 5-6 times securing with glue every few rolls. Once the tight bud is complete let the long strip of fabric unfold once and start rolling and twisting the fabric around the bud, securing with glue every few rolls. The twisting of the fabric is what will give the flower its dimension.
Step 4: Once you’ve got the flower to a size you want it, secure the end of the fabric in place on the flower with a dab of glue. Then trim off any extra fabric from the strip. I like to leave about a ½” of fabric so I can tuck it underneath the flower and glue it to the bottom. For a video tutorial, check out this post from the Cherry Street Cottage blog: http://cherrystreetcottage.blogspot.com/2011/03/fabric-flower-tutorial-at-last.html
Repeat Steps 3 & 4 with all your fabrics to create additional flowers.
As you can see, the different types of fabric roll a little differently so it gives the flowers a variety of textures and shapes. Once these are complete, glue them to the strip of fabric wrapped around your vase.
This next set of flowers was something I came across recently on tammymitchellphotography.com. Let’s call them Fringe Flowers. These will become a bouquet of flowers for the vase (plus they’ll last way longer than real flowers!)
Step 5: Cut two long strips of fabric, approx. 20” long and 1.5” wide. Those dimensions can vary though depending on how big or small you want your Fringe Flowers. Lay the strips on top of each other and cut slits close together down the entire length of one side of the strips. Start tightly rolling the strip together using dabs of glue along the way to hold in place. Once it’s completely rolled, fluff open the fringed pieces to create the flower.
Step 6: Attached the flowers to some floral wire using hot glue. If you don’t have floral wire you could use skinny doll rods, wire from a hanger, straws, pipe cleaners, or whatever else you have in the house!
Step 7: Place your bouquet in the vase.
Step 8: Give it to your Valentine!!
Happy Thrifting,
Katie