Fabric Flower Bouquet

Use some fabric scraps to create a pretty arrangement of fabric flowers for Mother's Day. This Mother's Day flower bouquet is bound to become a permanent fixture on her table.

Materials:

• Flower Pot
• Foam
• Dowel rods (I used 6 12" rods,: 4 at 3/16" and 2 at 1/4")
• Small pieces of wood (I used 3, appx. 1/8" x 1/8" x 8" each)
• Paint and brush
• Hot glue gun
• Fabric scraps (2.5" x 24")
• Buttons
• Tiny clothes pins (1")
• Spanish moss
• Small cards or photos
• Sewing machine and thread
• Hand sewing needle and thread

Instructions:

1. Cut foam to fit inside the flower pot.
    
2. Paint dowel rods and wood pieces. I used acrylic paints (50 cents each at JoAnn) and a foam brush. The dowel rods were painted green and the wood pieces, white.
    
3. Cut 6 strips of fabric, each at 2.5" x 24". You can estimate if you want (I did!). I increased the size to 3" for the bottoms of the double-layered flowers. As a side note, I would recommend keeping at least 2.5" in width. Anything smaller makes it hard to work with.
   
   
    
4. Fold one strip in half length-wise, right-side out. Press flat.
    
5. On your sewing machine (or by hand) stitch long, spaced out stitches along the cut edges of the strip.
   
   
    
6. Holding one piece of thread on one end of the fabric, gather the fabric as shown below.
   
   
   
   When you are done gathering, your fabric strip should look something like this:
   
   
    
7. This part can be a little tricky. Spiral your fabric around and around, starting at one end and sort of stacking it on itself. This part was impossible to photograph, but here is what it should look like when you're done spiraling.
   
   
    
8. Sew a button in the center by hand, making sure to catch a good portion of your fabric each time. This will help the flower stay together.
   
   
   
   Repeat steps 4-8 for each strip.
    
9. Hot glue each flower onto a dowel rod. And hot glue clothes pins onto wood pieces, making sure the opening of the clothes pin is facing up, so you can add photos or cards later.
    
10. Arrange your flowers and wood/clothes pin pieces, sticking them into the foam in the pot wherever you like. Add moss to the base of the flowers, atop the foam.
     
11. Add photos or notes in the clothes pins.
     
12. Admire. (Or give to your mom!)