Pleated Fabric Flowers

TUTORIAL by CraftaholicsAnonymous

Here's the latest trend on the textile front....You may have noticed these manipulated fabric flowers designs on pillows for the living room and bedroom accents. Here's a tutorial from craftaholicanonymous.com

happy crafting ....

TUTORIAL

you can makes these pleated fabric flowers in all sizes!

here's how:



1. cut a strip of fabric to be 2 inches by 24 inches. fold in half and sew wrong sides together.



2. get coordinating thread and a needle ready.



3. start at one end and fold the bottom {the edge with the seam} over to create a pleat. pinch with your fingers to hold in place.



4. sew a single stitch through the pleat to hold in place.



5. make another pleat next to the first pleat and sew a single stitch. repeat until you've made a "circle".



6. continue making pleats behind the first circle or layer. on the second layer, make the pleats slightly farther apart. *do not stitch layers together yet* don't worry if you're pleats aren't perfect! it adds to the character of the flower.

7. should look something like this.

8. when you've reached the end of your fabric strip, wrap layers and arrange how you want it to look. by doing it this way, you can easily adjust the size of the overall flower a little big bigger or a little bit smaller

9. sew the layers together and tuck under the unfinished edges at the beginning and end of your flower and stitch in place.

-if this is the size of the flower you want {approx 2"}, then proceed to step 10.

-if you want to make a larger pleated flower, skip to step 12.



10. cut a small circle of matching fabric {or felt, whichever you prefer} and hot glue to the back.



11. add an embellishment to the center- jewel, bead, rhinestone, button, etc. using hot glue. the attach pin, clip or whatever you choose to use it for.






12. cut a strip of fabric 3"x18" and repeat steps 2-5. {hide unfinished ends under pleats}



13. then layer the two pieces together and sew in place. then do steps 10-12. this makes approx 3" flower.

14. for giant pleated flowers (8"-9") like the one above i made for my Master Bedroom, you'll want to repeat steps 2-7 with fabric strips measuring 4"x44", then 5"x44" and then two 6"x44" strips. cut off any excess. then stack your layers starting with the smallest and hot glue or hand stitch in place depending on how you plan to use your flower. {like if you're putting on a plate like i did, hot glue is just fine. if you plan to put on a pillow, you'll want to hand stitch everything together}