To make a flower with floppy petals, use silk, thin cotton, or another thin, floppy material. For stiff petals, choose felt, denim, linen, or another thick, stiff material. Fabric flowers have more than one layer, and there’s no need for every layer to be made out of the same fabric. Make contrasting petals by choosing two or more types of fabric for your flowers. For example, you could choose a plain blue fabric and one with a white background and blue polka dots.
If you don’t want to draw your own stencil, check online for stencils you can print out. Make more than one stencil if you want contrasting, layered petal shapes. For example, you could make one stencil with large, long petals, and another one with twice as many small, short petals. Layering these two petal types together will create a neat effect.
Make as many layers as you want by repinning the stencil to a new section of fabric, cutting it out, and repeating until you have enough. You can make more than one flower shape at once by folding the fabric and pinning the stencil through both layers of fabric before carefully cutting out the flower shapes.
For a neater final look, make sure your stitches are evenly spaced, and that they are all the same distance from the bottom of the fabric. Run the stitch just above or below the straight pins you used to hold the fabric in place. Remove the straight pins once you’re finished stitching to the end of the fabric.
