Felt Rose Tutorial

I have been on a major flower and scarf-making kick lately! I made a few flower scarves as {late} Christmas gifts and I've just been finding all kids of other things to embellish these pretty flowers with! They are so easy and so much fun to make! I have always been one to make flowers using my glue gun, but these are such a nice alternative! It is also nice not having to worry about getting burned with hot glue a dozen times while making one flower! 

Materials Needed:

Felt 

scissors

needle and thread

  First thing you need to do is cut 6 circles, descending in size, from your felt. My largest is about 5 inches and smallest is about 1.5 inches. If you are making more than one, you can stack your felt and cut several layers at once. This will save you a lot of time. Keep in mind, the circles do not have to be perfect by any means since you will be cutting on them a little more. 

  Next, cut scallops around the edges of the circles. You can make the scallops deeper of you can just barely cut into the circle. I did a little bit of both. 

  Now, stack your pieces, largest on the bottom and smallest at the very top, with the exception of the least smallest piece. Lay it to the side. You will use it in just a moment. 

 

  Take your needle and thread and come up through the stack of circles, slightly off center. 

  Using your needle and thread, go back down through the stack, about half an inch away, on the other side of the center. 

  Pull very tightly, this will gather the flower up. Repeat this a few times. 

 Now, create an X.  Go up through the circles just like you have been doing, only this time puck your needle through one of the unused sides, about a half inch from the center making a new stitch that will cross the previous one.  Repeat a few times. I like to fold mine when sewing these stitches.

  Before you finish, take your smallest circle (the one you put to the side earlier) and gather it together by folding in half, and then folding it in half again. 

  Stick in in the middle of the flower and sew up from the bottom and "grap" the point with your needle for your next several stitches. Continue this until you are sure it is securely in place and until the flower looks like you want it to look. You can actually "cross" the stitches you have already made and just play around with it until it looks how you want it to look. Trust me, once you start making it, you will understand. It is actually so very easy. 

  Finally, using the same piece of thread you started with, tightly sew a few small stitches to the back of the flower. This is to "close it off" so to speak to make sure your flower is securely stitched together and the thread wont start to come out. 

  There you have it. A pretty rose, just in time for Valentines day! You can use this to make a rose scarf, hair clips, brooches, just use your imagination! If you get addicted to making these, don't say I didn't warn you! ;)