Goodness, Gracious, Great Balls of FABRIC!

Decorative balls are so popular right now... And for a good reason--they are so cute!! There are so many different kinds, to match ANY home decor--but have you priced these bad boys?!?!? Let's just say, $$$. So, here's AP31's best crafter ever to the rescue, with just one example of how to make your own for ¢ !! : )

I love to repurpose stuff! It's a great challenge! I am lucky enough to have some great thrift stores in my area, but by far my favorite is the Goodwill Last Chance Warehouse! They sell stuff by the pound, and the more you buy, the cheaper it is! I seriously LOVE this place. I went there the other day and picked up these 10 shirts for under $5!!! I decided to rip them up and make decorative rag balls out of them : )

To do this project you'll need :

* New or repurposed fabric

* Scissors

* String

* Hot Glue Gun

First, anytime you repurpose fabric, make sure you WASH IT FIRST! 'Cause you just never know... ;P

After they're clean and dried, cut the back panels out of the shirts and rip off thin, long strips. To rip fabric, make a small cut with your scissors first, then grab each side and RIP! (I find this VERY enjoyable...) Remove any loose threads.

My strips were about 1/2 inch thick.

For the ball, I cut up t-shirts and balled some fabric up in my hand. I secured everything in place by wrapping some string around the ball. Try to make it as round as possible.

Instead of balling up fabric, you can use styrofoam balls--but for me, the purpose of this craft was to re-purpose! : )

Next I started wrapping the strips I ripped around the ball. Hot glue the end of a strip to the ball and tightly wrap until you reach the end of the strip and hot glue that end in place.

Continue wrapping with new strips until your whole ball is covered.

The flannel prints reminded me of Fall!

This craft can be done in ANY fabric. Choose any theme or color scheme, and use your imagination!

Send us some pictures and we'll host them on the blog! Can't wait to see your designs!

*Jes*

Fourth and Final Flower: Simplified Yo-yo

This last fabric flower is very simple--and still very stylish. The more of them I make--them more I love them...

So here's what you'll need:

*Strips of Fabric

*Needle and Thread

*Large Beads or Buttons

The thickness of the strip is all to taste--depending on how big you want your flower to be... I think mine was around 3"-4". (I'm really bad about not measuring things.) The length of mine was 12"--but again, this can vary greatly depending on what you want.

Fold your strip in half. You can press this if you want--I DON'T want... : )

Start sewing in the wrong spot--try to pull it out--and make a big mess.

Recover.

Now, sew a loose baste stitch in the correct place--around an 1/8th" from the bottom--all along the bottom of your fabric strip.

Start scrunching the fabric along the stitch.

Stop mid-tutorial to give your kid some breakfast.

Then get back to scrunching...

See the flower forming?!?!? Yeah!!

Tuck one side of the strip into the other. Fold the end of the strip that is exposed inward.

Laugh at just how bad that picture really was. : )

Sew a stitch down the fold with matching thread. I didn't use a matching thread--so it would show up better for the picture.

Now--after your stitches are secure--fluff up your flower and scrunch accordingly... : ) Until it's just the way you want it.

Your stitch should be hidden at this point.

Now--here, I need you to use your imagination. Let's pretend that I had this really cute pearl button with a gold outline around it to place in the center of this flower.

Wasn't that beautiful?

But, did I have that on hand? Nope. So we must improvise! : )

So I found these beads to place in the middle. Not bad--but buttons are much less fussy. : )

Get creative with these.

Oh... I love red...

You can put these anywhere. Pin it to your shirt--add it to a bag--add it to a hair clip...

Then try to take pictures of it in your hair...

Because we would love to see what you came up with!! : D

Fabric flowers are so much fun! I hope you all have enjoyed all of these posts. We have so much in store for the coming months and holidays!! Think--weeks of fall crafts, apple recipes, and BIG plans for Christmas! Oh--I can't wait!!

Please stay tuned and enjoy!! : )

~Page

Fabric Flower #3 -"Burnt Flowers"

Now I think that Page & Jes saved this flower tutorial for me, since it's super simple (and I like to play with fire -haha). ;-) I have to say that I think this flower has to be one of the most fun to make, due in part because you do indeed get to "burn" the flower! I call this the "Burnt Flower" tutorial.

You will need: Poly-satin fabric, fabric scissors, needle & thread, a few small beads of choice, and a candle flame.

#1) Start out with a poly-satin fabric, pick your favorite color or play it up and combine several different colors for a one of a kind flower.

#2) You can create how ever many "petals" or layers that you'd like. 3, 4, 5+
Cut however many squares aka petals in 1" increments, depending on the size of your flower. I tend to like mine on the larger size, so I started with a 5" increment. Making a 5", 4", 3", 2", and 1"square. As you can see, my "squares" are far from perfect, and THAT is the beauty of this project.

#3) Next, take your scissors and round the edges. Easy enough huh?

#4) Now for the FUN part! Take your candle flame and gently burn the edges, the fabric SHOULD respond appropriately with lightly burning and curling to look like a flower petal. Not all fabrics work so well, but a poly-satin blend tends to work perfectly. Be careful not to burn yourself while doing this, and if you happen to get a little crazy with it and burn the fabric, simply cut the black area off and try again.



These are pretty fool proof, hence why this is MY flower tutorial. haha!

#5) Next pick a few beads for the center of the flower. Then arrange your petals together and take a complimentary thread and start sewing the petals together with a couple of stitches. Complete the look by sewing the beads in the center! Voila! Easiest flower EVER!


Now you may ask, what can you do with these flowers? Well....I'm glad you asked!!

Create a fashionable headband, set of hair clips, brooch, baby booties, baby headband, attach to a hat, pin on a necklace, decorate a gift, be creative - the possibilities are endless! Check out some ideas on how to creatively use your fabric flowers, several flower types are shown below.


Stay tuned for our 4th and final flower tutorial tomorrow!

~Lauren

Fabric Flower #2!

And the obsession continues! : )

Here is our second fabric flower! I'm not exactly sure what this one is called--other than WAY CUTE!!! He he!! Thanks, Jes!!

What You'll need :

Fabric

Needle

Strong, Heavy Thread

Scissors

Hot Glue Gun

A CD or another round object to trace your circles

This fabric flower is a great way to use up your scrap fabric. I only used one kind of fabric for my flower, but you can use as many patterns and colors as you want.

First, using a cd or other round object trace 8 circles onto your fabric and cut out.

Next, cut each circle in half. An easy way to find the center line of your circle is to fold the circle in half, iron it flat, then cut along the crease you just made.

My flower only has 7 petals, so I only used 7 half circles. You can have as many or as few petals as you want. After all of your circles are cut in half, fold each piece in half again right sides together. (It should look like a triangle with a rounded bottom.) Take your needle and thread and run a straight stitch along the straight edge of your fabric making sure to knot the beginning and end.

Turn each piece right side out and use something pointy to poke out the corner.

Using strong, heavy thread, sew a straight stitch along the curved end of a flattened petal.

When coming to the end of a petal, do not knot. Instead, continue to sew on the next petal.

Do this until you have strung as many petals as you want on your flower.

Grab each end of the thread and pull taught while tying a knot. Trim off what's left of your thread.

Cut out a circle of felt or heavy fabric and hot glue it to the back of your flower. This gives the flower more stability.

Hot glue a cute button or two in the center of the flower and your done!

Be on the watch for more flowers soon! Yeah!!