Shabby Rolled Fabric Flower

You've seen these everywhere right? They are so popular right now - and can sorta get expensive to buy.

They aren't exactly hard to make either - a lot of time goes into the more elaborate pieces, but you can make a couple of simple flowers pretty quick once you get the hang of the rolling process.

I made the two Shabby Flowers Serenity is wearing in the pictures, and as you can see I definitely wanted to try to create something more than a couple of simple rolled flowers.

These are all the materials I used to create both flowers:

Michael Miller Fairy frost fabric
Designer fabric
Silk flowers
Felt
Ivory vintage lace
Pink lace
Lt. blue tulle
Silk leaves
Swarovski ivory pearls
Stretchy headbands
Glue gun and glue sticks

I found the easiest and most comfortable way for me to roll the fabric was by combining the written and video instructions I found over at Alayne Studio.

1. Cut out a strip of fabric about 1" long x 45" wide (cut selvage to selvage*).
2. Iron the strip in half.
3. Tie a knot at one end.
4. Trim the piece hanging out of the knot.
5. Start rolling the strip snugly over the knot a couple of times.
6. Then holding the piece sideways - like a "wheel" as it says in the video - twist the strip, then roll the "wheel" around in your hand, twist, roll, twist, roll.
7. Stop every inch or so and hot glue (or fabric glue) the bit you've just twisted and rolled.
8. Attach to a stretchy headband using hot glue and a piece of felt.

Here's a very quick video I put together on my iPhone to give you an idea of how I rolled the flowers for Serenity's headbands:



Pretty easy!

You can cut a strip of fabric out however wide you want really - it depends on the look you're trying to achieve.

Try different rolling techniques for different looks too.

It can be fun to get funky and creative with these accessories - so many possibilities! And you can be sure if you make it, no one else will have one quite like it!

*POST-IT-NOTE:
Selvage - When a length of fabric is woven and printed or dyed at the factory it has two finished lengthwise edges. These edges are usually a little stiffer and fimer than the crosswise cut edge of the fabric and these edges will not ravel. When fabric is cut at the fabric store it is cut from selvage to selvage.

Have fun!