HOW TO MAKE FABRIC FLOWERS FROM OLD T-SHIRTS

January 30, 2023

3 mins read

I decided since I don't have a lot of Valentine decor perhaps I could sweeten up a plain tan pillow I had picked up a few weeks ago. I wasn't aiming for anything traditional {ie. hearts, cupids, etc} so it was perfect when a pink shirt sitting a top a donation pile happen to catch my eye. I thought why not use the old shirt to make some fabric flowers? {Sorry about that Goodwill!}

To get started, after you've picked a shirt to destroy {there's about twenty in my hubby's dresser if you'd like to burrow them} you will want to cut a circle approximately 2 to 2.5 inches in size from your coordinating colored felt.

Next, you are going to make your paper template. Draw a flower on your piece of paper. This doesn't have to be perfect but I would suggest making a flower with at least 5-6 petals. Cut the template out. My flower measured about 2.5 inches wide.

Now using your flower template start cutting your fabric flowers. I just placed my paper template down on the shirt & cut around it {you can use pen to trace your template first but this will leave pen marks as you will see in one of my pics below. I ditched the pen after the first few flowers.}. Again, no need for perfection here. As you can see above, my fabric flowers look like blobs! You'll need to cut out about 11-12 flowers.

Now take one of your flowers & fold in half and then in half again. Repeat until you have four folded flowers then take your glue & adhere them to your piece of round felt. You'll want to place them edge to edge but as you can see you may have some space between them depending on the size of your flowers and felt. No biggie! That space is going to be covered anyways.

Once you have those four glued down to the felt circle you'll want to glue the folded flap of each flower to itself. See picture above.

Fold four more flowers & glue them on top of the original four flowers but place them semi-perpendicular to the first grouping {so you cover the first group of flower's edges}. Repeat the layers until you have one last fabric flower left.

In order to make the center of you flower you're going to fold your last fabric flower in half but instead of folding it again you will want to roll it.

Then adhere to the center of your flower with a big glob of glue. Once that has dried, fluff up your petals & you should have a pretty & delightful little fabric flower!

Now your ready to adorn your pillow or what ever it is you want to dress up with your t-shirt flower. Of course unless you have a little mischievous doxie who likes to kidnap your flower project after you scold her for barking incessantly at the mail man. Then like me you'll spend fifteen minutes searching for said flower.

Evidence that my dog is a bully.

In order to get the t-shirt flower attached to your pillow or item you can either hot glue or sew it on.

I actually created two different sized t-shirt flowers for my project & then clipped on a matching chiffon flower clip I had lying around. I'm loving the soft & romantic touch that the flowers add to my decor!