Felt Flower Bouquet

I started working on this after seeing a great button bouquet on Craftster. I didn't have a button collection to pick from (and really need to avoid excuses to start collecting new craft supplies), so I decided to make the flowers from felt. Mine is currently residing on my desk at work--hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon.

Shopping List

• Felt - cheap acrylic/polyester felt is fine.
• Fabric glue or two-sided iron-on fusible webbing
• Scissors, etc.
• Floral wire
• Floral tape
• Glass vase (cheap at thrift shops)
• Glass marbles, cabochans, or other filler

Make some flowers

Cut flowers in a variety of sizes and colors. Glue or iron the flowers together in stacks 2 and 3 flowers deep, so the smaller flowers sit inside larger flowers--it sounds complicated but the photo should make it super obvious.

Personally, I preferred the fabric glue for this craft, but I've been told it'll fall apart in a few months. If you're using fusible webbing, don't iron it to the largest flowers. You don't want it to be visible on the flower backs.

To cover the floral wire stem, create small strips of felt about 1/2" long and 1/4" wide. Use a sharp bead reamer or pointy scissors to make small holes on either end.

Giving the flower a stem

Use a sharp bead reamer or sharp scissors to pierce a hole through the center of your flower. Piercing through 3 layers of felt can be a bit hard but a little digging and steady pressure will do it eventually--be careful not to deform the flower by stretching the felt too much. Push about 10" of floral wire through the hole (more for a longer than 8" stem).

Fold a small strip of felt in half and push floral wire through the two holes. Carefully bend the wire back towards the flower and push it through another hole. Push the wire back through the flower as far as possible. When the wire is back through, it should create a small bridge of wire across the front of the flower. Arrange the small strip of felt to cover the wire. If the strip is too long, the felt will bunch up in the center, which I don't think is a bad look.

Twist the floral wire together for the length of the stem. Wrap it in floral tape, and tuck the stem into the vase (with filler to keep it in place). Keep making flowers until you like the arrangement.