Hand-made flowers

Here is my latest sewing project step by step or at least close to it. I made flowers out of fabric to match Hadley's bedding as some decor for her room. I did my best to document with photos.

Step 1: Cut out a pattern.

Step 2: Fasten Pattern to washed and ironed fabric. I folded the fabric in half (right sides facing each other) so I could cut out the front and back of the flower at the same time. (and eat a cookie while you do it)

Step 3: Cut out pattern. I left about a 1/4" allowance around the edges for the seam.

Step 4: I marked one "petal" on both the pattern and both pieces of fabric to keep the edges matched up.

Step 5: Create a pattern for the center of the flower and fasten to fabric. (The center is only one layer.)

Step 6: Cut it out leaving approximately 1/4" seam allowance.

Step 7: Using fusable webbing and the center pattern cut out another circle, no need for a seam allowance.

Step 8: Place fusable webbing in the center of the right side of the flower. Place fabric center on top of fusable webbing. Using steam and an iron on low heat, iron the center, making it adhere to the flower. This helps keep the center in place when you sew it on. If there is a seam allowance on the center fabric, you'll fold it under as you iron. I found out this seam allowance was more of an issue than a necessity so on my next flower I didn't bother with it.

Step 9: Using a zig-zag stitch, sew around the edge of the center. I made the width of the stitch as wide as possible and the length very short to create a close stitch.

Step 10: Place fabric flower on batting and cut out. Another personal choice at this stage is whether to have a seam allowance on the batting, I didn't, hard to say if it would've helped. I used 3 layers of batting to create a puffy, 3-D look.

Step 11: Using the markings on the one petal of the fabric (from step 4), match the edges back up and then fasten to the batting. Make sure the batting edges match up also since the fabric petals will be a unique cut.

Step 11: Sew along the edges with a regular straight stitch. I left one "petal" unsewn so I could flip the batting and fabric right-side out. Use your hand to push on the edges from the inside. I found it easiest to have the fabric on the bottom and the batting on the top so the batting doesn't get caught on the feed dog. (No pictures of this step.)

Step 12: Using a needle and thread that closely matches the main fabric color, do a whip stitch to close up the open pedal.

To the right is the whip stitch, hardly noticeable.

Step 13: Staple to the wall and enjoy! ( I don't have them all stapled to the wall obviously but they're all done!)

This picture makes these flowers look awfully weird and uneven, while they're certainly far from perfect around the edges they don't look as bad in person.

I created the two smaller flowers to accompany the big flower following the same steps (odd numbers are more pleasing to the eye right?). I then used regular staples to hang it on the wall. They were easy to hide close to the seam and they don't leave huge holes in the wall! There were a lot of things I may do differently if I did this over again but overall it was a fairly easy project. And again, while the flowers are do not have the perfect rounded petals they do closely resemble the bedding which also adds a more "kid-like" flavor to it.