Okay- I finally got around to posting it. Here’s the collection of no sew T-shirt flowers to go with the no sew T-shirt scarves collection.
First, some tutorials from other sources.
For a folded petals flower, we’re going over here (the same place I found the simple loop ombre dyed scarf). A scrap circle of t-shirt will also work as the backing, just as you would use the felt. The felt may add a bit of stiffness to the flower if you prefer it. Here’s what mine look like: (if you can see the smudge of hot glue in the center, let it remind you to glue carefully!) Different size petals make different size flowers.
ETA: and if you want to make it a puffier flower with no button, there’s a tutorial here that’s very similar, but takes 9 petals and finishes it a bit differently.
There’s another flower over here, but instead of folding them, you lay them flat and stack them. There’s also a little size difference in the circle/flowers, and she adds some layers of poof that I didn’t add. This one uses a pinched center instead of a button. I found the easiest thing to do was hold the flower underneath, put a spot of glue in the center, and smoosh in from the bottom from all sides.
For a variation, you can just stack circles instead of flower shapes, and/or you can use pinking shears for a decorative edge.
The next flower is the readily available rolled flower. There’s tutorials in a lot of places. Here’s one, and as you can see there, you can make these flowers out of just about anything. So I just used T-shirt strips to make the flowers. Some tutorials for the rolled flowers use a piece of felt as a backing, which I prefer- I think it’s easier to glue, your glue isn’t as likely to show, it ends up a bit sturdier, and there’s no chance of any little holes to see through. Again, you can use a circle of T-shirt instead of the felt if you so desire. And from a voice of experience, don’t make it too big using a striped fabric, or you end up with something that looks like a lolipop rather than a flower (see below…). Maybe cute for a little girl, but I’m not gonna be able to pull that one off.
Now, here are my chrysanthemums inspired by pics I saw searching images on google. I didn’t find a tutorial for this when I was looking for flowers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s one out there somewhere.
Here’s what I did. Cut small strips of T-shirt, roughly 1/2″ by 2″ (choose bigger or smaller for different size flowers). Mine are purposely varied a bit in length. Stack and glue (or stitch). Since there’s so many petals and you don’t want your glue to end up too thick, use either fabric glue or only a bit of hot glue. My set up to hot glue worked best laying the glue gun on it’s side on the table. as it slowly oozed, I dabbed the center of each strip on the tip of the gun and stacked my petals off to the side Make sure your petals are all ready to go so that you can work quickly on glueing.
If they’re varied lengths, try to use the longest in the bottom of the flower. Hot glue on a button for the center, or cut another smaller scrap of T-shirt to put over the center. You can pinch and glue the last two to give a bit more volume to the flower before adding the button or final scrap of T-shirt (or leave just the pinched center as the finish if you prefer).
You can leave the strips as is or you can hold the flower in the center and pull each petal to get it to curl the edges. I prefer the curled edges myself. If you try to pull the petals at the beginning, it’s much harder to stack and glue, because you have to get them to lay flat in the center again.
Once you’ve gotten your flower together, you may want to gently tug the flower from top and bottom to see how much “accordion effect” you may have where glue spots didn’t line up. Spot glue places it pulls apart more noticeably to keep the flower from flopping forward/down once you try to wear it.
The last flower I’ve got for you is a variation on this daisy-like ribbon flower that I saw over here, but modified the materials and assembly with T-shirt scraps for a no sew loopy flower.
Cut two long skinny strips of T-shirt and stretch to curl the edges over. My grey and yellow flowers are two different lengths and widths of T-shirt strips. That means one has shorter, fatter petals and one has longer, skinnier petals. My yellow flower had strips that are roughly 3/4″ by 12″. They grey was a bit wider, probably 1-1 1/4″ wide. Some T-shirt fabric will also stretch much more than others. My yellow was a thinner t-shirt and stretched very well. The grey was a bit thicker fabric as well as being a wider strip, so it didn’t stretch as much.
For the first t-shirt strip, glue the two ends together.
Fold in half and glue at the center in a + shape.
Fold in and glue at the half way point of each big petal to form roughly even sized small petals. Repeat with the second t-shirt strip. Stack your two petal bunches together and glue.
Then glue a button on the center. Repeat the check for “accordion effect” as in the flower above and spot glue where necessary to prevent a floppy flower.
Any of these flowers can be made into a tie on flower (glue a strip of t-shirt on the back) or a broach/pin on flower (glue a pin on the back). I prefer the tie on.
The bonus with the tie-on flower is that if you use a long enough strip of T-shirt, you can use it as a headband! A shorter strip and it can still be used to tie on a ponytail.
Okay- a couple more last minute additions I just ran across and really thought I should add the links for:
A no sew carnation, made similar to a pom-pom over here. The picture from her site:
If you’re brave enough to get out a needle and thread for a simple running stitch, there’s a beautiful t-shirt flower tutorial here. Unfortunately, I can’t get the picture from the site. When I make one, I’ll post it.
For those of you on the fence about the needle and thread: a running stitch is simply going up and down through the fabric in relatively big stitches. This allows you to pull the string through the fabric to gather it. Just knot the end of the thread so it won’t pull through completely. Here’s a picture. You want it to gather a lot, and it’s okay to add on if you don’t have one piece long enough for the whole flower. Just make sure it’s the same width and keep on stitching. I didn’t notice where the piece was added on in my final flower without searching for it.
Love this,thanks!
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