Simple guide to making fabric flowers

Surprise your loved ones with a buquqet of flowers, or even better with a bouquet of flowers that never wilts.

Kate Hansford of Daphne Rose is showing us how to create a Valentine’s bouquet that’s made to last a lifetime using cotton and DYLON fabric dyes, you’ll be swept away by the colourful beauty of these flowers, and when you see how easy they are to make you’ll be grabbing your rubber gloves, popping on your piny and following this easy step-by-step guide to make your own Valentine’s bouquet (if you’re not the crafty type you can also buy them from Kate’s Etsy store).

A snippet from Kate’s step-by-step guide:

Materials needed:

– White cotton fabric (plus something to protect your table)

– DYLON fabric dyes & fabric paint

– Water in spray bottle

– Rubber gloves

– Washing up bowl with water

– Paint brush

– Wooden skewers or florist wire

– Needle & thread

– Scissors & hot glue gun

Step 1. Before you start making the flowers protect your table. Lay fabric on the top and take your spray bottle and spray water over the fabric.

Step 2. Empty a small amount of your DYLON colours into a pot, each color you have selected for this project into a separate pot.

Step 3. Time to get creative. Sprinkle the dye over the fabric to achieved your desired look. You can achieve various colour effects by sprinkling the colours evenly or in clusters for different colour mixing outcomes or even leave some of the fabric dye free.

Step 4. Rinse the fabric in water, you will want to wear the rubber gloves when you do this. Hang the fabric to dry.

Step 5. Once the fabric dries cut it into strips ranging from approximately 6-12cm in width.

Step 6. Fold under approximately 1.5cm at the small end of your fabric strip, fold the strip in half lengthways, matching the raw edges,  and pin in place. Thread your needle and sew a rough running stitch along the raw edge, take out your pins as you go. Fold under another 1.5cm at the other end and stitch into place.

Step 7. The roses are almost finished, pull on your thread and slide the fabric along it to gather it together. Begin to roll the fabric up to make your rose shape, the more gathered the fabric is the more open and loose your rose shape will be.

When the fabric is rolled together and you are happy with the shape of the roses, stitch from one side of the flower to the other until the fabric is held securely in place.

We’ve also have some words about this lovely project from the colour expert at DYLON, Sophie Bagnall:   “It’s been great fun working with Kate to create this quirky bunch of flowers. There’s a real trend for personalised gifts and crafts at the moment and Kate’s creation solves the problem of ending up with sorry-looking, wilting flowers. What better way to express your love than with a beautifully handmade bunch of roses?” and we couldn’t agree more!

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