Flower Folds Fabric Pins Photo Tutorial

At our convention this summer, Stampin' Up co-founder Shelli Gardner showed lots of handmade gift ideas that she had worked on with her daughters and mom. One of the crowd favorites were fabric brooches made using the SU Flower Fold die for the Big Shot die cutting system. This first one in this post is one Shelli made -- love the shabby Chic look, frayed edges and all. She based the idea on a very expensive pin she'd seen in a fancy boutique.

These are so fun to make -- and easy once you make one. I showed this idea at my recent Big Shot Die Cutting class and wanted to share it here. The trick is to use the Flower Folds die -- SU item #115970. The die cuts four flowers that you layer if you want -- and there's even a score line made at the base of each petal to make them easy to give dimension. Here's how they look made from card stock (which I also embossed with a dotted texturz plate after I cut them.)

For the pins I only use the smaller three flowers -- although I did make one gigantic pin with all four sizes layered. How about showing your team colors with a game day brooch??! Go Gator Nation. I can't resist doing a photo tutorial using University of Florida fabrics. I like to have four different coordinating fabrics. Cut flowers from each of the four fabrics in each of the three sizes -- so you have 12 flowers.

Fold each flower in half so they all look like this.

Now you are going to work with each size of flower by itself -- layering the four folded prints so they overlap like this.

First two, then three....

Then the fourth one is where you do just a tiny bit of weaving -- laying it on top of the white one in this case and tucking the other end under the bright orange one with the football helmet on it:

Do all three sizes the same way until each size looks like this:

Then you're going to stack up your three layers and shift them as you like to get a pretty pin:

A few tacks with a needle and thread around the center through all the layers and it's held together. You cover your thread with a pretty button or other embellishment for the center. I'll be putting football buttons in the center of these. I sew a pin finding from the craft store on the back and it's ready to wear. Here's a look at that big one I mentioned that I made with fall theme fabrics -- I think this would be a pretty embellishment on a Kraft gift bag for a Thanksgiving dinner hostess gift -- or to wear on a winter coat:

Here's Shelli's daughter Sara modeling a Halloween one she made -- gorgeous!

And a close up -- notice the netting and feathers tucked in:

Stampin' Up demonstrators have gotten so creative with these. Check out Christie's blog for some of my favorite that I've seen while browsing in cyberspace. And she even has a video of the steps I showed you in my photos. The die will cut through thick fabrics such as upholstery fabrics.

Have fun making these flowers that never need watering and never wilt. I'll share some more ideas of things to make with this very fun Flower Folds die so check back this week for that.