Bow obsession... add fabric flowers to that.

Those that know me well know that I have made about a billion bows during the past two-and-a-half years. Giving birth to a girl just brings it out of ya. My two daughters' closet cannot contain them. And I must say I have done a spledid job of making them all dirt cheap. I buy ribbon at the dollar store or the dollar bin and use it forever, for everything. Ribbon bows have typically been my thing, mostly because I knew how already, but lately I have been dappling in fabric flowers and bows. Cutting up old clothing for some flowers for my wreath got me thirsty for more...

Here are a few that I've been experimenting with... I used only old clothing for all of these... hemmed edges and lace are aweseome!  I love making things for only the cost of hot glue and thread. Go and see what your hand- me-down bag can offer!
I'm sure you have seen tutorials elsewhere (or you can find awesome tutorials at this SITE THAT I LOVE) so I only added mini-explainations... if you want a tutorial just leave a comment.

The following came from one old shirt... lace and hemmed ruffle. This lace is just glued in a circle. The rosettes are just a hemmed edge rolled up, and the big rosette is just a hemmed edge rolled in the middle with a ruffle glued around the edge.

Leftover tulle...puffs! Little layers of tulle wrapped around the middle with thread and ... puffed!

This is just ric-rac leftover from a baby blanket project. I  thought i would see how it turned out and it is my favorite ever! The ric-rac makes perfect little petals. I had to glue the "centers" of each little petal together to get it to wrap around a circular shape. They are so darn cute in my daughters hair. And so easy! I guess this one wasn't technically free since I had originally bought the ric-rac myself, but hey, good way to use up!

These are fabric circles that have been baste stiched around the outside edge and pulled in to the center and flattened. There are two layered here. The button is hiding the pulled in strings, which give it the ruffly look.

Lace... one just wrapped in a circle, and one with circles of lace folded into points and layered.

Old skirt? I love it! These are just long pieces ruffled and sewn into a circle.

Ugliest shirt ever... (and felt)... Ruffled fabric into a circle, rounded square of felt cut in a swirl and rolled up.

This flower is really humongous and I haven't quite figured out what to do with it yet. I was just experimenting to see how big I could make one. This is just long strips of fabric from old pant legs ruffled and glued around a circle of felt. Nifty, eh?

Now I had to add some felt flowers to the mix, since they are the stuff that dreams are made of these days. I love that they take two seconds to make and I can make lots from a single piece of cheapy 20 cent felt.

12 inches x 2 inches of felt folded longways and glued at the edge, slits cut, and rolled up! Fluffy, delightful, fun!

Rosettes made from rounded squares with a swirled cut, rolled up, and six circles folded into "S" shapes and glued onto a separate circle.

Fabric Wreath

What to do with an old crappy wreath that you got for free? This, I guess! I was THIS close to giving it away, but my friend gave me some leftover green spray paint, so I felt the urge to spray it and see what would happen. I love this green!

While poking around, I saw this stinking amazing ruffly wreath HERE and really wanted to attempt it... BUT, I didn't have nearly enough fabric laying around that would match. I am uber cheap so I decided to attempt it later when I find a rockin remnant sale. However, I did have some leftover cheapy duck fabric and some tan and brown pieces leftover after cropping some pants (yes, I even save those pieces) and decided to make some roses. It evolved into this!

Each piece was pretty simple to make. The blog linked above has a tutorial to make the roses and I just made up some other little things to fill it in. Everything is sewn messily by hand or tied with fabric pieces. The fabric on the top is just wrapped and everything is hot glued on. Simple. This took me only a few evening hours to complete and looks a heck of a lot better than it did before.

Best part of this project? It cost me absolutely NOTHING, except for the hot glue and a yard or two of thread. Perfect. I love recycling.

I think it might be fun to eventually cut a letter "R" monogram to hang in the center, or to add little house numbers to the side, what do you think?