Today I am sharing with you how to make these Shabby Chic Flowers to use to embellish, embellish, embellish! They can be used to embellish wreaths, accessories, pillows, or anything else you can dream up! I used them on my Shabby Chic Ruffle Towels.
As my regular readers know, our little family is living with my father in his big, empty house (he is a widower) during my husband’s medical training in order to save money and start paying back the mountain of student loans that we have. This year my dad and I decided to redecorate and remodel much of the house. Everything was untouched from my mama’s early 1990s peach and blue decor, and it was really time for an update. For most of the house he has made me stay plain, simple, and more masculine, but in the main floor powder room he said I could go a little nuts. Well, I went as feminine as I thought he could actually stand. Pretty gray cabinets, with curly aged silver knobs from Anthro, a fun, wavy silver mirror, and a lovely blue on the walls aside from an accent wall that is a subtle white wallpaper with tiny silver flecks on it. I am making a fun wreath covered in these shabby chic flowers for the accent wall to bring in the blue and some other color, but I decided that wasn’t enough: I needed some hand towels with pizazz. And thus these towels were born.
Now, let’s talk Shabby Chic Flowers. Aren’t they fab? I can’t really decide what “my asthetic” is in decorating. Sometime I love ultra sleek, mid-century modern with straight lines and very bold colors. Other times I love soft colors and distressed antique furniture. My tastes vary widely. The kitchen we ended up with is more sleek and timeless, so I went more feminine and “shabby chic” in the bathroom. Just for fun. I like to mix it up.
These shabby chic flowers would be perfect for almost anything—baby headbands or hair accessories, wreaths, towels, clothing embellishments, pillows, etc. So, so versatile! The sizes can be easily varied by using different lengths of fabric strips. They are essentially slightly ruffled fabric that is hot glued into blossoms. Let’s take a look at how simple they are to make.
Cut strips of fabric. Mine were 1 – 2 inches wide and a variety of lengths. I ended up gluing two together midway through the flower to create a longer strip. No exact measurements are needed. Leave the edges unhemmed to get the frayed, shabby look.
Baste along the center of each ruffle. Basting is sewing with a very long stitch. DO NOT backstitch on either end of this. You need the thread loose so that you can do the next step.
Use your hands to create the ruffle now. Hold onto one of the strings and simply push and scrunch the fabric gently until you have created a ruffle.
Once you have gathered the ruffle evenly, tie small knots in the thread to secure the ruffle and then snip the excess strings off.
Now use a line of hot glue on the edge of the flower to scrunch it and create a round flower.
At this point you could call it done by glueing a cute button in the center of the flower, or you can make a center so it is more full.
If you would like to create a full flower look like mine then take another strip and fold it in half with the printed side of the fabric facing out.
Now dab hot glue on the fabric to hold it in place as you roll the flower loosely into the center, like a cinnamon roll. (Cinnamon roll…..mmmmmm!) 
When you are finished you will have two pieces.
You can now glue the center onto the larger flower.
You can leave it open like this or you can add glue next to the base of the rolled flower and squeeze in the sides a bit to create a more closed bud look.
At this point I glued a pin on the back of the flower. I didn’t know how the hot glue would hold up in the washing machine, and this way I can only create two flowers and pin them onto multiple ruffled flowers while the towels are in the wash. I intend to hand wash the flowers occasionally, of course.
Voila! Don’t they look fab? I love how they turned out. My dad wasn’t nearly as impressed. Heehee.
If you are interested in learning about making the ruffled towels be sure to pop over to Craft Snob for the full tutorial!
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Jenn says
August 25, 2013 at 10:54 pmThese looks awesome! The fabrics are great and those flowers just make everything better! 🙂
Sarah says
August 26, 2013 at 9:49 amThanks Jenn!
katie says
August 28, 2013 at 6:28 amI’ve never been good at making flowers–yours look amazing! I featured this today on Sew Woodsy!
Sarah says
August 28, 2013 at 10:15 amThanks, Katie!