Shabby Chiffon Flower Tutorial

The other day I posted that I had made these flowers and said that I would do a photo tutorial on how to make them.  So here it is!

What you will need:

• 1 x embroidery hoop - the size of the hoop will determine how big you can make your flower
•  Piece of Tulle (netting) that matches the colour of the chiffon/fabric that you are using
• 1 length of chiffon or chosen fabric (better to use a lightweight fabric) - I cut a strip that was approx 150cm long and around 3cms wide - the wider it is the more the flower will stick out from the tulle when finished
• Co-ordinating thread and a needle

First of all cut your fabric to the desired size

 I cut mine to 150cm x 3 cm wide but you can experiment if you wish!

You don't have to use a rotary cutter but if you do it will give you a straight edge and you can then just fray it up once your flower is made. Don't use the rotary cutter if you want a rougher more shabby look to your flower, instead you can cut into the fabric to around 4cm up and then firmly hold both edges and tear the fabric to the end.

You now need to cover your embroidery hoop with you tulle netting - stretch it out over the hoop and secure.

Take your length of chiffon and tie a knot in the end of it to form the centre of your flower.

Lay this onto your embroidery hoop and tuck the end part under the knot and put a few little stitches to keep it in place.  I usually stictch around the whole knot taking my needle through the tulle net and then back up into the fabric.

Now you need to fold the piece of straight fabric after the knot in half lengthways so that the patterned side is facing outwards.  You will need to keep hold of this and start to wind it around the knot to create the centre of the flower, stitching it at the bottom to the tulle netting as you go.  Pull the thread quite tightly as it gives it a better shape.  You only need to catch the edge of the fabric and then take you needle through the tulle net and back up again.

You should start to get a nice middle now to your flower.

Keep going until you feel the middle is big enough and then we are ready to make the rest of the flower petals.

Now take alittle of the fabric (still folded over) and put it against the flower middle but this time fold it back on itself to create a little loose tuck or pleat and stitch into place, pull your thread tight again to give shape to your flower.  Keep doing this all of the way around.

Keep repeating this step

You will see your flower starting to take shape

You can start off doing the little tucks closer together, then as your flower progresses, start to space them out more.

Keep fluffing up your flower and if it is a little too loose in places or there are any big gaps where you can see the tulle net underneath, you can pop a few stitches into that bit as you are going around.  Continue until you have around 4cm of fabric left.  Now you can carefully cut around the net and then fold the end bit of fabric under the net and stitch it in place.

The back of your flower will look something like this

The front of your flower will hopefully look like this

I find that no two flowers look identical which is nice.  You can make the middle as big as you want to and you can experiment with looping the fabric over and stitching it to the tulle net to get a different design.  You could also just keep winding it around and stitching like for the middle part of the flower and get a tighter, more budlike look.  The choice is yours!

I hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial - I'm quite new to doing them so have tried to explain and put photos of each step. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask me or you can email me if you wish bumblebeescraftden@gmail.com