How to make a fabric rose | How About Orange

January 20, 2011

How to make a fabric rose

It's the last stiffened fabric project and then I'm moving on! I wanted to try an oversized, realistic fabric rose just for fun.

Make a template with six petals. I traced around a dinner plate and a small bowl on the back of some ugly wrapping paper. (Tip: if the paper is too curly, iron it flat and your life will be better.) I've included my feet so you can admire my cute socks.

Prepare some stiffened fabric. See here for how I did this. My fabric pieces were too big to lay flat in my microwave this time, so I draped each piece over a couple drinking glasses and nuked them one by one. The fabric came out stiffened in a odd shape, of course, but ironed flat easily.

Using the template, cut three flower shapes from the prepared fabric. Grab a shape and fold it in half to make a crease between petals. Open, rotate the flower, and repeat twice more until six creases radiate from the center.

In the first flower, cut a slit along one of the fold lines to the center. In the second flower, cut out one petal segment. In the third flower, cut out a piece with two petal segments. Save these cutouts; they'll form the center of the rose.

On each flower, overlap the two petals adjacent to the slit and secure with a little glue. (I used Aleene's OK To Wash-It Fabric Glue.)

While they're drying, curl the double-petal and single-petal cutouts. Heat each petal with an iron and roll the rounded edge back with your fingers. When it cools, heat the triangular point of the petal and roll it into a cone shape that's rose-like. This part is tricky! I had to iron the petals flat and start over a few times until I had something reasonable. The one-petal piece should be able to fit inside the two-petal piece when you're done.

Heat the remaining flower petals one at a time with your iron and curl the edges back.

At this point I stacked the pieces to see if they looked nice. Yes! But I decided a flat bottom for this flower might be more useful.

So I cut off the point. (If you're going to do this, I'd suggest trimming when the pieces are still flat: fold them into a cone shape and snip off the points before you glue.)

I hot glued the petals together at the base, then added a felt circle to hide the trimmed ends. I could see these as DIY wedding decorations, attached to curtain tie backs, used in romantic centerpieces, or gathering dust in my box of finished projects I have no idea what to do with.

54 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cute! And glad to hear that I am not the only one with a box of cute, handmade stuff that really doesn't serve a purpose :-)

xoxo... t said...

You rock my world and should have a TV show. Everytime a new post goes up, I oooh and aaah over the brilliance!
xoxo

Laura said...

how completely awesome!! i have a billion wedding projects coming up that involve fabric flowers and this would be so great to try.

jen said...

That looks fantastic? Did you consider using a hair curling iron instead of a clothes iron and your fingers to curl the petals? That seems like it might be a bit less tricky.

jen said...

OOps, sorry about the random question mark after fantastic. That wasn't mean to be an interrogative statement...

Jessica Jones said...

That might work, but you'll still need a regular iron to heat the pointy ends of the inner petals so you can shape them.

Allison said...

Wow! These turned out beautifully. I would imagine that if they were made a bit smaller, they would make for a lovely decoration on a headband or something similar. Lots of inspiration here!

Jamie@OwlReally.com said...

SO pretty. before you cut the tip off, do you think it would be easy to find a way to attach some sort of stem/handle to the rose? i'm looking to make a giant flower as my bouquet - one single fabric bloom as a statement bouquet... but i'm having trouble figuring out how to attach a handle/stem to the bottom of any fabric flowers that i might make.

Sewmancer said...

I love the size of these - would make great centrepieces!

Grandma G said...

AHA! I knew when I saw you eyeing those huge flowers.....

;)

Lovely!

Mum/notRose

Amy Ro. said...

omg these would be so perfect for an alice in wonderland party!!!! thanks for the tutorial =)

Momichka said...

I use these steps to create roses from paper. They came in pretty handy at my wedding!!!

Maxabella said...

That really worked!! x

kayla said...

what perfect timing--i was just looking for a silk flower to make into a pin to perk up some maternity tees. i think i can make this on a smaller scale, and it'll be just right!

Kimmi said...

So sweet!

I recommend you make this rose into a huge hair flower or brooch. Or, you can make several smaller flowers and string them up into a necklace. That would be uber-cute!

Ella Unread said...

Beautiful!!! I absolutely love it!! Plus, the fact that you chose white makes it way more elegant! :)

Anonymous said...

This is adorable. I will have to try it. It doesn't look to hard for someone who doesn't really craft. :)

Erika

Jessica Jones said...

Kimmi, thanks. It's as big as my entire head, though, so smaller ones would be better. :)

GALaxy said...

I want to use it as a big bow on top of a present! Beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Amo seus trabalhos, mas tem uma coisa que me entristece quando entro no seu blog. Sou brasileira e não consigo traduzir nada!!!

Jessica Zee said...

How lovely! As clumsy as I am, though, I'm afraid to give it a try. I might just have to try Jen's suggestion and see how that works because the result is so pretty.

manda said...

You could totally have a giveaway of those finished items gathering dust!
Love the rose, thankyou for the tutorial!!

LuRae said...

I love the flower, but am s-o-o-o-o-o-o disappointed that your socks aren't orange!

Tai Bender said...

these are beautiful! Great job!

Anne Magee said...

Gorgeous! They look like gardenias! Makes me long for spring... :)

Kate S. said...

love all these stiffened fabric projects! So fun, so many possibilities...

MeredithJean said...

SO cool thank you.

dreamalittle said...

I love your fabric stiffener and want to make some stiff fabric of my own but I can't seem to find any in the UK...?

able mabel said...

Yes, I do love your socks, but they're not orange. ;)

What a fun idea! I would love to try it on a much smaller scale.

Dana said...

Love this large size in fabric!
I created a tutorial to make these from paper and die cuts last year. http://kismetartlife.blogspot.com/2010/08/paper-rose-wedding-card.html

I guess great minds think alike. (not to mention my all time fave color has always been orange!)

Anonymous said...

Those are so lovely ! I think it would look great on a plain cushion in the bedroom for a romantic touch ! You can also use a mix of water and sugar and let set/dry for around 12 hours if you don't have fabric stiffener.

Anonymous said...

I really like your tutorials, you're very good at explaining how something is made :)

feathermar said...

it is magnificient!

Anonymous said...

I love these!! Wish I thought of this for my wedding. They would be very pretty painted with a little water color.

Christy Amular said...

That's so gorgeous. Thank you for sharing the tutorial! :)

Bumblebee said...

I'm definately going to try a smaller version of this made with paper/card for a card. Thanks for the clear tutorial!

Anonymous said...

Love the tutorials and will be making some soon. And that box of crafts -- how about doing some give aways to your readers?!?! Love your fabric -- can't wait until my next upholstery project.

Virginia said...

These would look good in amongst some of my flower arrangements very dramatic! thanks.

Lisa Brown said...

Very pretty!

Taylor said...

Oh my, I had no idea it was super sized until the pic of your hand, love it!

Taylor
www.maryjanesandgaloshes.com

Casa cu cadouri said...

gorgeous! you explain very well, thanks for the tutorial :)

Bel said...

Amei esse blog estarei sempre aqui beijos

Unknown said...

I like the fabric rose of course, but those socks!! Those are the hero!

Queue said...

How cute would this be as a hair piece? And so much cheaper than the ones at the mall too! I might have to take a trip to Michael's and start experimenting.

Sommer said...

I think this site totally stole your tutorial: http://lacreationdujour.blogspot.com/2011/01/faire-une-rose-en-tissu-apprete.html

Anonymous said...

Wow, thats so cute, plus I love your socks;)

Anonymous said...

hola soy de VENEZUELA tu rosa esta muy muy bonita la mas linda que e visto en la web voy aver si me saleRI

Anonymous said...

beautiful rose - what fabric did you use for the white rose?

Jessica Jones said...

Just some light-weight cotton.

kim west said...

featured these today!!!!

www.kimboscrafts.blogspot.com

p.s. love your socks!

Deborah said...

Very creative, will try doing this.

Unknown said...

Gave you a shout out!

http://4you-withlove.blogspot.com/2012/05/happy-may-day-2012.html

Marilyn

Unknown said...

awesome tutorial-- will have to use soon!

highfalutin said...

i made this rose for a Valentino inspired dress I am making for design class. fabulous. I would suggest using a pencil (iron as you curl) or a similar shape to curl the fabric. also in order to have a fuller flower I doubled the petals. I then cut the points off the petals, after the first 3 centers, as I stacked them.