Felt flowers are kind of my thing. I love any excuse to craft some pretty florals, but I’m starting to run out of places in my house to put them! Unfortunately my boys aren’t too keen to wear felt flowers in their hair, so instead I thought I would start sharing some DIY felt flower tutorials here instead!
This post contains affiliate links. Read more.
This is my first DIY felt flower tutorial on The Yellow Birdhouse. Hopefully the first of many actually!
I love designing new patterns, and sharing them is fun!
This cute flower is really easy to assemble, the hardest part is cutting it out. But I’ve got lots of tips for you. 🙂
This is a great beginner-level DIY felt flower tutorial.
What You Need
8″x 8″ piece of felt for the flower (I used this felt in Parchment and Foxglove)
2″ x 5″ piece of felt for the leaves (I used this felt in Fern)
Alligator clip (I get mine at Michaels)
Wilton’s Flower Stamens
Hot Glue Gun – Surebonder is the best for making felt flowers
Quilter’s Freezer Paper (optional)
Free Flower Pattern – Just click to download
(Check out this page for a list of all my favourite tools for working with felt.)
Notes on Materials:
I have tried so many different types of alligator clips and I always come back to the ones at Michaels. They are good quality and have teeth so they are less likely to slip out.
The stamens are optional but I think they really add a lot of character to this flower. I purchased mine on Amazon, but I later realized I could have gotten them down the street at Bulk Barn. Lol. They are meant for cake decorating but they are NOT edible.
Surebonder glue guns are really the best for making felt florals. This one has a very fine tip so you won’t end up with globs of glue oozing all over your pretty flower. The only thing is that you MUST use Surebonder glue sticks with a Surebonder glue gun. You can’t use any old brand of glue. Totally worth it though. The glue gun runs about $15usd and a pack of 50 glue sticks is around $18usd.
Freezer Paper Notes
I checked every local store I could think of for freezer paper, and in the end I could only get it online.
Using freezer paper is an awesome way to transfer complex patterns to felt. It made cutting out this flower so much easier!
Freezer paper has wax on one side, unlike wax paper which has wax on both sides. DON’T use wax paper!
If you have an inkjet printer, you can put the freezer paper through just like normal.
If you have a laser printer (like me!) then there are a couple extra steps. Laser printers run hotter than inkjet and you could ruin your printer if you’re not careful.
So I trimmed 1/2″ off the top and side of a sheet of freezer paper, then scotch-taped it thoroughly to a plain sheet of computer paper, wax side down. This will protect your printer from any melt-y wax.
I know it’s really hard to see because it’s white on white. I should have coloured the edges or something. Anyway, I’m sure you can understand what I’ve done. 😛
Now you can download your free felt flower pattern and print it onto your freezer paper.
My paper has little specks on it because my scotch tape was covered in pink glitter. Haha! That’ll teach me to keep my tape in the same cupboard as the kids’ art supplies!
(If you don’t want to use freezer paper, that’s totally fine. You can still download and print the pattern on regular computer paper. Cut it out of the paper and scotch tape it directly onto your felt. Cut through the tape and felt simultaneously. Trust me, that’s what I did for years, it works like a charm!)
Ok let’s make flowers!
DIY Felt Flower
To iron the freezer paper to your felt, turn off the steam and cover your felt+paper with a press cloth. Press gently until the paper is adhered to the felt.
Then use a pair of small pointy scissors to cut out the flower, leaves and bottom circle. My scissors are DMC Embroidery scissors.
Now you can gently peel the paper off the felt.
Next, add a dab of glue to the start of the flower roll. Place the stamen bundle so that it lines up with the tops of the first petals. Roll the end of felt around the stamen to secure it in place and trim off the extra length of stamen stem.
(I also used the same stamens to make these beautiful Calla Lilies. They have a free pattern too!)
Now you simply roll the rest of the flower, adding lines of glue as you go!
Look how pretty it is!
Next we add the leaves.
Glue 2 leaves together by overlapping the bottoms. Then glue each set of leaves to either side of the flower.
Now we just have to add the clip!
Although, you could use this flower for lots of different things, not just a hair clip. It would look great in a wreath or a bouquet or even a garland. There are so many ways to use felt flowers to pretty up your life!
Ok the clip.
Hold the clip open and add a small line of glue in the groove. Take your felt circle and press it into the glue to secure.
Add a generous amount of glue to the underside of the clip+circle and press it into the bottom of the flower making sure all the glue is adhered.
All done! Admire your work!
And don’t miss out on my other free floral patterns including this eucalyptus stem and this pretty cosmos!
Don’t forget to grab your free pattern, just click to download it.
And pretty please if you make this flower, share a pic with me!
Happy crafting!
ps. Another felt flower that would be gorgeous as a hair clip is this beautiful ranunculus!
Hi, your felt flowers are very pretty! I have made felt flowers in the past using a spiral pattern but something weird always happens. As I roll and glue the spiral, some of the flower petals lay right on top of each other rather than fanning out evenly to look like an open flower. I’ve tried rolling it tightly and loosely with the same results. Any suggestions? Thank you.
Do you have the name of this die?
Hey Julie, It’s not a die actually. It’s a pattern you can download and print for free! Enjoy!