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do you use for the rolled type of flowers? I bought some plain canvas tote bags to pretty up a little for my dd and my step-dd for Christmas and I have never made any before. I am not sure what type of fabric to use for them. Will t-shirt material work or does it need to be something more stiff?
I've not done any, but I would think it will depend on how you want the flowers to look. I can imagine that t-shirt material will give you a nice soft looking rolled sort of flower, slightly dimensional, but sitting fairly flat on the bag.They would probably be ideal for what you want them for. To make flowers that stand up/out a bit more, you could use cotton fabric, probably with an added iron on interfacing? Linen is a little stiffer on its own, so would also work.Hth.
Can you show us what you mean by "rolled type" of flowers? There are several things I might describe that way and what you use will depend on the look you want. I've seen some with frayed edges, for example, and you definitely don't want t-shirt material for that as it's knitted and won't fray - you want something like a cotton sheeting or woven curtain lining for those.
Have you seen an example somewhere of the sort of thing you want to make?
OK, that's obviously a woven fabric because of the way it's fraying at the cut edges and it looks quite lightweight to me.
That Pinterest link is broken but a little google detective work and I've found the tutorial for you, it's here. She describes the fabric she's used as "silky" which is not all that informative, I'm afraid! It's woven (as opposed to knitted like t-shirt fabric) and from the way it's behaving in the pics I'd say it's a dress weight fabric so it may well be an offcut from something like a bridesmaid dress fabric.
If you prefer a more finished looking edge, you can use exactly the same technique with ribbon rather than a fabric strip. I think t-shirt fabric would work fine too but you'd get a slightly different look again as any exposed cut edges would probably tend to curl.
ETA - I just remembered a project I made with a ribbon flower made the same way as these so I've attached a pic so you can see how that turns out with the finished edge.
Thank you Joanne!! Your project is great! I love the flower too. I think I might try ribbon instead of fabric and see how I like those.I like the clean edge .
You're welcome. I'd guess you want flowers that are similar in size to the ones she has on the headband if you're making for a bag so choose a wide ribbon (I'd probably try for a couple of inches if possible) to make your flowers come out bigger.
Joanne, do you have any idea how much ribbon it takes for them? I have 2 for my girls( probably 3 flowers each) and one for my husband niece..She is only 3 so I am thinking one smallish sized one as hers isn't a bigger book sized tote but a smaller one..more 3 yo sized if you will LOL. I am considering doing some headbands as well.
It will depend a bit on how much "body" your ribbon has and how tightly you twist it as you go. There's actually a tutorial in the resources section here at SCS (here) and I'd say it looks as if Beate cuts about two feet of ribbon for that one. I'm guessing that might be about the right size for your three year old's bag and you'll want a wee bit bigger for the older girls/bigger bags so allow a longer length for those.
You could try one first with some lightweight scrap fabric (an old sheet, for example) to see how you go before cutting into lovely ribbon. Cut to the width of the ribbon you plan to use and take note of how long your strip is when you start then subtract anything you trim off at the end to figure out what you need. I'd then add a few inches "leeway" to allow for differences between the fabric and the ribbon in terms of springiness etc.
Wanted to mention that you can use watered down glue (make sure it is the dries clear type) on your ribbon or fabric and once dried your flowers would be stiff and/or hard, depends on how much glue to water you use. Just make the flowers or whatever while still wet and then set aside to dry. I used this tech on christmas type cotton ribbon for a basket years ago and it still looks great today. When I say years ago I mean 30+ years and it gets stored in a very hot attic most of the year.
It all depends on the look you want. I have used almost every kind of material imaginable...burlap, silk, flannel, cotton, denim, ribbon..all sorts with no problems in the construction. It's a surprise every time but I will say don't spare the glue when adhering it to your project.
Mrs Noofy what kind of glue would you recommend? I don't have a lot of experience with fabric as you can tell LOL. I was thinking for the tote bags I could sew them on. That would work right?
And then for a couple of hair clips and a head band or 2 one being a wider cloth type one..that could be sewn I think..but for the harder plastic one what should I use?
What kind of fabric...
