How To: Easy Beautiful Fabric Roses

How to make beautiful fabric roses - Pocketful of Posies

**UPDATE** This post has become so popular that I would really love to do a follow up post showcasing everyones craft project that includes these roses.  Please email me a picture of your craft featuring these roses to cat@pocketfulofposies.com by May 15th, 2015. Thank you!!

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  • 3-4 dress shirt sleeves or other small amount of medium weight fabric. (I used three complimentary colors)
  • Similar shade of thread
  • Very small amount of green fabric or felt
  • Sewing needle
  • Liquid Stitch (both iron on or original will work) (Affiliate Link)
  • Small gauge wire cut into 2.5″ pieces
  • Petal Pattern (Download PDF HERE)

I started by breaking down the dress shirts by cutting the sleeves off, followed by the cuffs and then cutting down the seems to open the sleeve up.

  1. First I made a simple pattern for my petals.  Don’t worry they don’t have to be perfect. To download a PDF copy of my pattern click HERE. As you can tell the shapes are not perfect, I did this intentionally to add interest to my roses. (If you don’t have a printer any sort of oval shape will work fine. When I made mine for the first time I just free handed them on a regular piece of printer paper).   
  2. Using the patterns cut out petals for the roses. See Rose Recipes further down for the quantity of petals need for each type of rose. 
  3. To make a rose start with the smallest size oval and roll it into a small spiral. The flatter side of the petal should be at the bottom.  To add a little space in the spiral I added a small piece of scrap fabric to the bottom of my petal prior to rolling it. After you’ve made your spiral secure it at the bottom with a couple of stitches. 
  4. Continue to add petals in a circular pattern around the spiral.  When starting each new petal should slightly overlap the previous petal.
  5. After you have the first two or three petals in place, start to make small folds at the bottom of each petal as they are added to the rose.  This will create interest in the rose and to encourage it to bloom. Add more or less folds to each petal depending on how open you want your rose to be.
  6. For roses that are just starting to bloom move each row of petals up a little higher as you sew causing the center to be lower than the outside row.For roses that are in full bloom keep the petals at the same height or move them down slightly as you sew.  A mixture of roses will help to give your wreath visual interest.`

Large Rose

6 petals of each size

MEDIUM ROSE

5 petals of patterns 1-5

SMALL ROSE

5 Petals of patters 1-4

For this 15″ wreath I used 2 full bloom large roses, 1 large bloom partially open rose, 3 full bloom medium roses, 2 partially open small roses and 3 full bloom small roses.  For a grand total of 11 roses. 

  1. To make the leaves I simply freehand cut each leaf out of double layered fabric.  The fabric I had left over was the button down portion of two green shirts left over from a different project.
  2. Then I cut short pieces of wire that were slightly longer than my leaves, about 2.25″
  3. To help give the leaves stiffness and shape I separated the two layers of fabric then placed the small piece of wire in-between and added a couple of small drops of Liquid Stitch (Affiliate Link) Iron on and ironed them together. (If you are using original Liquid Stitch, make the leaves before you make your roses to avoid long dry times).
  4. Once the leaves were cool I trimmed any edges that weren’t perfectly aligned and then bent each leaf in a slightly wavy pattern to give the leaves some depth and character.

That’s it!  Both the roses and the leaves are very simple to make and I love that they don’t require hours of melting fabric.  I’d love to see pictures of any project you might use these on! Please comment below or send me an email!  If I get enough pictures I might have to do a post showing off all of your beautiful projects!

Thank you for taking the time to check out my tutorial!  Have an amazing day!

Shop my styleAre you ready to make your own fabric roses and wreath?  Don’t forget these!

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31 thoughts on “How To: Easy Beautiful Fabric Roses”

  1. These are so pretty and it’s hard to believe they’re made from a shirt! We usually just throw old shirts away but I may have to try this (although I don’t think mine will look nearly as pretty as yours)

    Lisa @ Fun Money Finds

    Reply

    1. Lisa,

      They were actually pretty easy to make. Mine were far from perfect. The cool part about these is the imperfections is what makes them beautiful. The small imperfections make each rose unique and without them it would just be a blob of fabric! I hope you give them a try! I’d love to see your project if you do! This post has really taken off and if I get enough pictures of everyones crafts I want to do a follow up post showcasing them. Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by!

      Cat

      Reply

    1. Thank you Amy! They are actually surprisingly easy to make all the little imperfections is what makes the flowers look great! Thank you for stopping by! I can’t wait to see you all at Work it Wednesday!

      Cat

      Reply

  4. They turn out gorgeous! Would be a great use for some of the scraps of fabric I just can’t bring myself to get rid of. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  9. Beautiful colors & awesome idea 🙂 Saw this on the Your Turn to Shine link party, and love it!

    Reply

    1. I would love to see a picture of your project Anna! Thank you for taking the time to check out our page!

      Cat

      Reply

  16. I’m going to try these today. Making them out of my moms (who is no longer with us) old robes. They will be gifts for my sisters and I.

    Reply

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