Make a recycled T-shirt flower

Making recycled t-shirt flowers is a good way to brighten a dreary winter day.  It's easy!

First cut some strips of fabric out of old clean t-shirts.  I used a rotary cutter but a sharp scissors will work just as well.

The strip I'm using for this demo is 2 x 5 inches and this seems to be a good ratio.  You can make the flowers any size.  Fold the strip in half lengthwise and make a running stitch along the raw edge through both layers of fabric.

Then snip along the folded edge for the petals making them any size you like.






Gather the petals tightly and tie a knot in the thread.  Open up your flower.  The flower is a little over 2 inches in diameter.

I'm making this flower into a pin so I'm stitching on a backing with a brooch pin using 3 strands of embroidery floss.  I cut out a circle of heavy timtex interfacing with some fabric fused to it because I have a lot of this stuff.  You can use felt or any heavy fabric if you don't have timtex.  I stitched a brooch pin to my back circle and then whip stitched the circle to the flower.  To end I made a knot and pulled my thread through the circle and cut it off.

                                            

 

 

 

 

 

Then I used 6 strands of embroidery floss to attach a button to the front of my flower.  I pulled the floss through the button two times and tied a square knot (right over left and left over right) to finish my pin.

 

If you want to do less sewing you can use craft glue to finish your pin after you gather your flower.  For this pin I glued a circle of cardboard cut from a cereal box to the back of the flower and then glued the brooch pin to the cardboard circle.

 For the front of the flower I pulled a ribbon through a button and then glued the button to the flower .

I think both pins turned out cute.

You can use fabric flowers to make hair clips or headbands.  The flowers make great embellishments for t-shirt scarves, gift packages, handbags or anything!