How To Make No Sew Crappy Chic Fabric Flowers

The fabric flower baby headbands craze is at its peak, and there’s no time like the present to jump on this Pinterest fad-fueled flame. I certainly intend to strap a wad of crumpled fabric to my childs forehead, so together with my friends Bree and Amber (aka The Crafty Book Goddess, check out her blog!), we set out to make this no sew crappy chic fabric flower tutorial for the average girl who trolls Pinterest and sets out to “Nail It”!

First off, it’s important to note that in the DIY crafting world, “chic” is generally code for “crappy looking” and “requires no real talent”. Remember: Accidents are art!

These particular crafts are a loose interpretation of the clean cut sewn fabric flowers that require things like patterns, patience and skill. Ultimately these crappy chic fabric flowers are going to look a lot less like a flower, and a lot more like a fabric buffalo ate a fabric flower, then had a tightly coiled fabricy bowel movement. Topped with a button.

Okay then! So let’s get started!

You Will Need:

A lot of scrap fabric that you don’t mind ruining using

Hot glue gun

Glue sticks

Scissors

Buttons

Bandaids (for hot glue burns)

1. Start heating up your glue gun.

Hot glue must be hot to use. So turn your gun on. And make sure it has a glue stick in it. This step is important and is always forgotten till you’ve got something positioned just so, and then you have no glue to glue with.

Next, make sure no one you are crafting with has the mouth herpes. Glue guns come in two varieties: Dollar Store and Martha Stewart. If you are using the busted up clearance rack glue guns like we were, once you get to the end of an old stick, you will need to feed the new stick through with your teeth, a chopstick, or a friends finger.

2. Get your fabric ready.

Tear or rip out a piece of fabric that is about one to two inches wide and about a foot and a half long. (If you rip the fabric, it is imperative that you make an obligatory “rawr” sound.) The length, texture and weight of your fabric will determine how your flower ultimately ends up. Heavier fabrics like linens are easier to work with and give a nice bulky twist, but sheer fabrics make your crappy chic flower look more artfully and intentionally retarded.

3. Make the center of the flower.

Fold the strip in half and then roll it up into a little wad. Put a dot of glue on it to get it started and then roll the glued end to make the base. This is the center you’re going to start winding your fabric around.

4. Start rolling your flower.

Once you have your center, start twisting and rolling, twisting and rolling, gluing the fabric together as you go. Don’t glue your finger to the flower, or to the table. Interesting fact: skin melts! In the event that  When you do glue your finger, or face, or friend, feel free to curse: Your grandma, your dog, your friends most sacred beliefs – but take special care to curse the people who make these crafts look easy and pain-free. I don’t care how seasoned you are with a glue gun, those things are like dinosaurs on Jurassic Park – THEY WILL FIND A FIND A WAY. Amber ended up with some hot glue in her hair. (Of course, she did try to strap a freshly made fabric flower onto her forehead, but that is besides the point.)

Tip: When you are winding the cloth around, you want to make sure it stays flat and rolls out and not up. Keep rolling until you have the flower the size and shape that you want (or until you run out of fabric, or it starts falling apart, or you get impatient and just want to stop).

5. Finish your flower.

Make sure you leave a 1 to 2 inch tail of unrolled fabric at the very end. Spread glue on the bottom of the flower and fold the tail over the bottom. To prevent obscene amounts of blisters, have a friend help you with this last step.

At this point, you should have a tightly wadded up dooky roll looking flower-thing. Feel free to add a button to the center. It will make it look pretty and less like poop. And that’s pretty much it! I’d say it’s so simple that you can’t mess it up, but then again, hot glue is hot and you’d be amazed at the things a fresh blister can cock up.

And when all else fails, feel free to wad the fabric up in frustration and glue at random. Have fun!