Fabric rosebuds are versatile small accessories that can be used for many purposes. They come in handy to create a realistic-looking flower or as a cute embellishment on clothing, hair accessories, and more! 

Fabric roses have been around since the 18th century and were originally handmade from velvet fabric with silk petals. Nowadays they’re made from many different types of fabrics including satin, organza cotton tulle, lace, chiffon among others. 

The process of making them is still done by hand which makes each one unique. You can find them at any sewing store or online retailer like Amazon–just search “fabric rosebud” to see what’s available!

But If you want to make fabric rosebuds? Then this article is for you.

 

Materials You’ll need:

Scissors – you’ll need a pair of sharp dressmaking scissors and a pair of kid craft scissors (for cutting the thread). Some people use embroidery or floral shears, which have a ‘notch’ in the middle of the blades. This makes it easy to cut small things off your fabric without having to try and fold them over.

Fabric scraps. I used two flower print fabrics from an old cushion cover, but scraps from whatever project you’ve been working on will work well too. You’ll need quite a few scraps though!

The fabric doesn’t necessarily have to be cotton – I’m going to experiment with tulle next time I make rosebuds. Thick Cording/Ribbon for stems Cement for gluing the rose together Sewing machine (not strictly necessary, but it saves lots of time).

How To Make Fabric Rosebuds:

Step 1:

First up you’ll need to cut your fabric into small 3cm squares. Don’t worry about them being neat or anything – it’s better if the edges are rounded rather than sharp.  

I’ve used flower print cotton fabrics here, but you can use whatever scraps you like – jersey is good for making thin roses; silk is good for textured ones; tulle works well too.

You cut your fabric into squares before starting because this way it will be easier to keep track of how many pieces of each color/pattern you have – in turn makes it easier to get the same number of flowers when you come to decorating them (and if they’re evenly distributed throughout your garland, it will look better).

Step 2: 

You’ll need to cut two petals from each fabric scrap. You can make these as neat or as crazy as you like – I tried to create a symmetrical shape for my first rosebud and found that it looked nicer when I used fabrics out of order on later roses.

So go ahead and be creative! As long as the ‘base’ of the petal is roughly 5cm in diameter or more, it’s fine.  

Once you’ve got enough little squares cut out, use one pair of scissors to snip straight down one side of the square (like you would with paper) and then use another pair to cut straight across the corner.

Once you’ve done this for all your squares, take your second set of scissors (this time it doesn’t matter if they’re sharp or blunt) and cut around halfway through the first cuts that you made on each petal – see picture below:

Step 3: 

Creating the Stem For this step, I’m going to apologize because I don’t have any close-up pictures – however, I’ll try to explain as best as possible!

You need a piece of thick cording or ribbon that is long enough to go from one end of your rosebud garland to the other. There’s no ‘right’ length, but I would say that 8cms is a good measurement.  

You need to turn your cording into thick thread by pushing your scissors into the middle of it and then pulling them out to create loops. Do this down one side of the cord.

Step 4: 

Gluing Down The Stem Next you’re going to take some of your cement (I prefer PVA glue for this kind of project) and use it to stick the end of the stem onto each petal by pressing it down on top of its topmost loop (see picture below).

This will make sure that when you begin sewing, you won’t get any loops up underneath your needle which can be very annoying if they get stuck on your stitches.

Step 5: 

This is the bit that I find the hardest… But with practice, it does get easier! You start by sewing around the outside of your petal (in an upwards direction) with a running stitch using some thread or embroidery floss that matches your fabric.

This is just to hold each petal in place before you come round again and sew right through them all – they will form a nice little ‘bud’ shape which you’ll see later on.

Once you’re happy with the way that your first stem looks, cut off any excess cording/ribbon so you don’t have long ends hanging out of your rose.

STEP 6: 

Now it’s time to sew on the second stem! Start by sewing around it with your running stitch, which will stop your petals from falling off, and then you can do the same again for this stem as you did for the first one (the photo above shows an unfinished rose – if yours is finished like that’s fine!)

Step 7:

The Top Petal Now you’re going to add a top petal. I’ll be honest here and say that I didn’t learn how to make these properly till much later -, when I was making my very first roses, I used tulle instead of fabric because I couldn’t work out how to make them and tulle is much easier.

Now that you’ve got a bit more experience, this won’t be difficult for you! All petals on the outside of your rosebuds should lie downwards, however, if they don’t… Just turn them along the line where the two stems meet until they’re facing the right way.

You can use pins to secure these petals in place (but make sure you take them out again before you start sewing!

Now it’s time to get attaching some sequins! Once you get into it, this part becomes quite addictive – I started by gluing sequins all over one side of my rosebud garland (because that’s what I wanted it to look like) but then started cutting my sequins in half so that I could fit more on, which also looks great! You can use tacky glue for this part or PVA – either will be fine.

You’re almost done! Now it’s time to attach the rosebud garland to your dress/shirt/skirt/whatever you’re wearing with some safety pins. Use as many as you need to make sure that it stays put during your whole evening!

Conclusion: 

This was a fairly long article, and I know that there can be a lot to take in – but it is worth taking the time to make your rosebud garland as you will be able to create exactly what you want and nobody else has one like yours. 

Thanks for reading!

For more articles like this please visit www.improvesewing.com