Cloth Flowers from Flour Sack Fabric

March 17, 2016 · By Sarah Ramberg · 78 Comments

After taking a lengthy break from upcycled jewelry making projects, I decided it was time for me to delve back into it. I’ve made plenty of bracelets and necklaces, but never a brooch or a pin! And I decided to make some cloth flowers with the same flour sack fabric that I used for this project with vintage wooden spools.

You see, I came across this adorable idea from Mollie Makes for a fabric flower pin that I just had to try myself. And while my inspiration used new craft materials, I wanted to try it with my scraps of flour sack cloth!

And of course, I always have plenty of vintage buttons on hand, so I was ready to start creating a fabric flower!

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Flour Sack Fabric as Petals for Cloth Flowers

As a quick note, I found my scraps of vintage flour sack fabric on Etsy. Etsy is also a great place to search for vintage buttons, as well. Ok, onto the project tutorial!

First, I selected five scraps of flour sack fabric and used a can of chickpeas to trace out my circles (along with a fabric pencil for tracing).

Then, I simply cut them out with my fabric scissors. They didn’t need ironing, but this is the time to do it if your fabric is wrinkled.

With my fabric circles in hand, I folded one fabric circle in half (wrong sides together).

Then, I simply folded it in half again (now quartered) and looked like a little triangle.

Now it was time to break out the needle and thread!

Stitching Together a Lapel Flower from Flour Sack Cloth

First, I ran a basic running stitch across the raw, curved edge of the vintage fabric (through all layers). I also left a lengthy tail on both sides of my “petal”.

Doing so is an important step throughout the rest of the project.

Contrary to the original inspiration tutorial, I then carefully gathered my lapel flower “petal” before moving on to the next piece of flour sack fabric.

I did so by pulling the running stitches tighter.

The inspiration tutorial gathered all five petals at the same time. I’m sure that would work just fine, as well!

Then, I simply repeated the process with running stitches through the next folded fabric circle.

And again, I gathered the second petal right next to the first. My lapel flower was starting to come together!

Transforming a Fabric Flower into a Lapel Flower

I continued to do the same thing until all five “petals” of my lapel flower were stitched on!

Then I carefully tied the tail threads together in a knot. Now it was time to add a vintage button to the center and add the brooch hardware to the back.

First, I used a little glue to attach my vintage button to the center of the lapel flower. Then, I cut out a small circle of felt, and stitched a pin back to the upper center of my felt circle.

Next, I stitched the felt circle to the back of my brooch pin, grabbing each vintage fabric petal as I went along.

As insurance for my vintage button, I used a curved quilting needle to carefully stitch the vintage button to the felt. It wasn’t the easiest task, but it was doable!

I also made sure I paid attention to the angle of the shank before I stitched on the felt circle. Doing so made it easier to grab with the curved needle. This wasn’t a step in the original tutorial, but I just didn’t trust the glue alone!