I've had a few emails asking how I made the flower for my market bag, so I thought I'd share. I'm sure there's already something like this out there (really, there are a gazillion fabric flower tutorials), but I'm too lazy to look for it! I didn't follow a tutorial when making mine, I just put together what made sense to me. If you'd like to make one of your own, here's how I did it:
1. Cut a strip of fabric 2" wide. I used a width of quilting fabric, so my strip was 2" x 44".
2. Fold the fabric in half lengthwise while making a running stitch along the raw edge of the fold, essentially making a tube.
3. Once you've run the needle and thread through the entire length of the fabric, pull your thread to gather the tube. I gathered mine to about 22".
4. Cut a circle of felt 2.5" -3" in diameter. I like to use a color close to the color of fabric that I'm using, but that isn't all that important.
5.Starting at the outside of the circle, start spiraling your ruffle around the felt circle while tacking it down with needle and thread. You could use hot glue on this step if you'd like, but I'm a hand stitch kind of girl.
Keep circling...
and circling until you've used up all your fabric. You might want to play with placement before you start sewing the fabric to the circle. As you can see, I probably should have started my second row a little closer to the first one. Be sure that each row covers the raw edge/stitches of the row before it.
When you get to the end, turn your edge under a bit then tack to the center.
6. Finish off with a button of your choice.
Here's my back - not pretty, but not that bad.
From here you can sew your flower onto a bag, attach a pinback, glue it to a headband, or whatever your heart desires!
