easy fabric flowers and headband

this flower....

....is the exact same as....

....this flower.

and very easy to make.

all you do is take a strip of lace or fabric (for the size shown i use a 1 inch wide strip that's about two feet long) and do a loose stitch (by hand or machine) a couple centimeters from the left edge all along the way down. then pull the stitch so the fabric bunches. next, form it into a circle overlapping on itself to make the flower shape. when i use fabric i then stitch it secure through the middle of the flower (i don't cut away my thread from doing the loose stitch so it's the same threaded needle) and then you add a button or pearl to the middle (using the same threaded needle) and voila! 

one tip on the fabric version is to just make a snip and then rip along the bias of the fabric to get your strip easily and to get a frayed look.

for the lace version i cut a circle of felt and hot glued the lace and button down. 

for my next trick, the easy headband

go here for a tutorial on making that headband out of tights. the one difference between mine and the tutorial is that she uses a ribbon where i used a one inch strip of tights.

and one last word to the wise...

always salvage supplies from clothes before you give them to goodwill. 

i used a seam ripper to take that lace off of a skirt i was getting rid of, and the fabric covered button on that flower is from a shirt i outgrew (sadly).

free supplies, can't beat that!