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You are here: Home / Crafts / How To Make Fabric Flowers From Old Bed Sheets

How To Make Fabric Flowers From Old Bed Sheets

11th April 2018 by Claire Armstrong 40 Comments

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Upcycling to me is all about turning the old and unloved into something more beautiful. One of my favourite things to make is faux flowers from repurposed rubbish. In the past, I’ve made beautiful map roses, a denim flower bouquet and sweater felt flowers. This time I show you how to make fabric flowers from old bedsheets.

Spring has finally arrived and to get into the seasonal mood I’ve decorated my house with flowers. I do love real flowers, well for about a week before they start dying and the water stinks.

The beauty of these upcycled fabric flowers is that they will last forever and require only occasional dusting. Also, there is no stinky flower water to deal with.

But don’t ask me what kind of flowers they are. They are a made up upcycled flower.

Upcycling Bed Sheets Into Gorgeous DIY Fabric Flowers

With this upcycle I managed to get the sharpies out once again. I love playing with sharpies, I have quite a collection as my eldest son buys me a pack every birthday.

As I was so obviously delighted with them the first time I received them, my son decided he was on to a winner so that’s it now sharpies every year! I desperately need to think of more sharpie crafts, as they are beginning to stockpile.

These flowers were made in an afternoon with an old bed sheet and some floristry wire. They cost very little to make. I made some pink watercolour flowers and left some au naturale but you can make them any sharpie colour that you want.

I also have made some fabulous fabric mushroom art out of old bedsheets that can be also seen on Pillarboxblue.

How to make fabric flowers from upcycled bed sheets

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What You Need

  • An old bed sheet or any other cotton close weaved light fabric.
  • Craft wire about 0.5mm thick – This comes in lots of different colours, I used pink for these flowers but I’ve also used silver in the past.
  • Floral wire stems approx 22 guage
  • Green florists tape
  • Tacky glue
  • Sharpies in various colours
  • Isopropyl alcohol spray (rubbing alcohol)
What you need to make fabric flowers

How To Make Fabric Flowers

1.. First, cut a random piece of fabric from your bedsheet about 2ft square, and iron it flat.

2. Next, cut several lengths of the craft wire about 30cm in length. Baring in mind 6 pieces of wire are needed for each flower.

Make a frame for each petal by twisting each piece of wire into a long petal shape with a small stem.

Make petal frames

3. Cover one side of the wire petal frame with a generous amount of tacky glue. Then stick the round part of petals down onto the ironed sheet. Make sure the wireframe lies flat on the sheet.

Top Tip: You can lay something heavy on top of the wires whilst the glue dries to make sure they stick to the bedsheet.

Making fabric wire petals

4. Next, after the glue is dried, carefully cut out each petal from the sheet.

Bed sheet petal.

This was my favourite part of this craft. Some of the petals I left au naturale, the others I watercolour dyed with sharpies.

Using a selection of pink, red and purple sharpies colour in a fabric petal. Don’t worry about them looking messy at this stage.

6. Then, spray the coloured in petals with rubbing alcohol, that’s when the magic happens. The alcohol makes the inks run into one another, creating a watercolour effect.

7. Next, gently squeeze and bend the wire petals into more of a flower shape.

Shaping wire fabric petals

8. Next, cover the wire floral stem with green floristry wire and then attach one petal to the wire by wrapping around the wire end around the stem.

Repeat with the remaining 5 petals, adding them one at a time and spacing them around the stem.

When all the petals are attached cover the stem with green tape, to hide the wires. It is easy to shape your flower by gently bending the petals.

How to make fabric flowers from upcycled bed sheets with sharpie watercolor petals

When I started this craft the plan was to sharpie watercolour all the petals. However, I loved the look of the white petals too so I left half of them as they were.

Upcycled bed sheet flowers full tutorial
Pink and white wire frame cotton flowers DIY

I do think that both the pink and white flowers do look good together.

DIY fabric flowers with sharpie watercolor petals

These fabric flowers would look fabulous in the hand-painted glass bud vases I made. Or even better in this upcycled denim hanging mason jar vase.

I also love to make faux flowers out of thick Italian crepe paper, I have several posts where I have made these flowers. Such as my gorgeous giant Boho flowers vase and the large faux flower pineapple wall decor.

Upcycled felt is also a great fabric to use when making faux flowers, I’ve used these felt flowers for a fun Frida Kahlo Pillow and have even made a whole repurposed faux felt succulent garden. Or you can even use yarn to make some pom-pom flowers.

You can find more cool craft ideas for adults here and some fabric flower ideas here too.
 

How to make flowers from sheets

Filed Under: Crafts, DIY Upcycling, Valentines Tagged With: bed sheets, fabric, fabric flowers, faux, faux flowers, flower, flowers, sharpie, sharpies, upcycle, upcycled, watercolor, watercolour

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. David johnny

    13th January 2019 at 6:05 am

    Wow! This is great. I will try to make them at home. Thank You for your great article.

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      13th January 2019 at 8:48 am

      Thank you

      Reply
  2. Rosie (@greenrosielife)

    31st August 2018 at 9:55 pm

    These are lovely and would be a great way to have flowers around the house in the middle of winter when real ones would all be imported and/or grown under heated glass. #GoingGreen

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      1st September 2018 at 12:09 pm

      Thank you, they were fun to make.

      Reply
  3. Debrashoppeno5

    2nd May 2018 at 4:58 pm

    These are so pretty. I love flowers made from upcycled items.

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      2nd May 2018 at 7:16 pm

      Thank you, they are currently sitting on my window sill in the kitchen.

      Reply
  4. Claire Armstrong

    21st April 2018 at 4:09 pm

    Thank you so much.

    Reply
  5. Beverly

    21st April 2018 at 12:29 am

    Your fabric flowers look lovely and it’s great that they were a recycled project. The waterfall effect looks great for these flowers. Thanks for sharing at Snickerdoodle. Pinning.

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      21st April 2018 at 6:26 am

      Thank you so much. They are currently sitting on my window sill in the kitchen and look lovely there.

      Reply
  6. Mary

    19th April 2018 at 6:56 pm

    Simply gorgeous Claire!! The colors are stunning!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      19th April 2018 at 7:52 pm

      Thank you, Mary. You can make them any Sharpie colour you like.

      Reply
  7. Stephanie

    17th April 2018 at 8:44 pm

    They look great – you’d never know it was an old sheet. The white ones look pretty special and exquisite. #homeetc

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      18th April 2018 at 1:50 pm

      Thank you, Stephanie. I think the white ones are my favourite too!

      Reply
  8. Caro | The Twinkle Diaries

    17th April 2018 at 3:10 pm

    They’re lovely Claire โ€” I like both too โ€” the white ones are so simple. But also… THAT gin bottle!!! My eyes definitely lit up when I saw that!!! I’m a sucker for anything gin based โ€” plus I do love a pretty label! #HomeEtc

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      17th April 2018 at 3:33 pm

      Thank you! The Gin was delicious too, Rhubarb. I’m a sucker for great packaging and this time the contents did live up to the packaging.

      Reply
  9. Julie

    17th April 2018 at 12:54 pm

    These are just gorgeous, I love both versions.
    Isn’t it funny how the kids will go with something once they know you like it? I can think of much worse things than a stock pile of sharpies! In our house we all share a shopping list app and so I write very specific lists with amazon or argos links for craft gadgets near my birthday and surprise surprise I usually get exactly what I’m after.

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      17th April 2018 at 1:06 pm

      Thank you. It’s the same for my husband he gets a tube of feather shuttlecocks every Birthday!

      Reply
  10. Cecilia

    16th April 2018 at 2:20 am

    Lovely fabric flowers! Thank you for sharing at Vintage Charm!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      16th April 2018 at 2:15 pm

      Thank you so much!

      Reply
  11. Caroline J

    15th April 2018 at 6:21 pm

    Gorgeous! Such a fun idea x

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      15th April 2018 at 8:35 pm

      Thank you.

      Reply
  12. creativejewishmom/sara

    14th April 2018 at 9:06 pm

    Love it Claire, and would be so fun with patterned fabric as well, gotta try it! thanks for sharing on craft schooling sunday!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      15th April 2018 at 6:04 am

      Patterned fabric would be lovely too! Thank you.

      Reply
  13. Lorin Small

    14th April 2018 at 7:32 am

    Cool project! I’m always on the lookout for faux flowers projects!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      14th April 2018 at 11:00 am

      Thank you, faux flowers are fun to make and they don’t die. They just get dusty!

      Reply
  14. Chas

    12th April 2018 at 7:22 pm

    So very pretty and cute. Thanks for sharing on To Grandma’s House We Go!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      13th April 2018 at 5:19 am

      Thank you ?

      Reply
  15. Marissa | Squirrels of a Feather

    12th April 2018 at 1:50 pm

    I like the pink and the white too…have you tried to do this with colored sheets? I don’t have any white ones ๐Ÿ˜‰ I figure you just need to make sure the sharpie markers are darker than the starting color?

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      12th April 2018 at 3:23 pm

      Thank you, just give it ago with darker sheets see how it goes.

      Reply
  16. Susanne

    12th April 2018 at 12:08 pm

    These flowers are awesome!! I didn’t know you could get a watercolor look with sharpies and alcohol!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      12th April 2018 at 3:22 pm

      Thank you, yes itโ€™s a fun technique to play around with.

      Reply
  17. Schilly Construction Inc

    11th April 2018 at 11:11 pm

    How wonderful. I love how they turned out, even the fabric ones!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      12th April 2018 at 6:21 am

      Thank yo?

      Reply
  18. Victoria @DazzleWhileFrazzled

    11th April 2018 at 3:23 pm

    I love fabric flowers as well. Great tutorial. Would look great as a gift topper as well.

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      11th April 2018 at 7:06 pm

      Thank you, Victoria.

      Reply
  19. Michele Morin

    11th April 2018 at 1:42 pm

    These are amazing!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      11th April 2018 at 2:00 pm

      Ahh, thank you that’s very kind of you to say so.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Wonderful Wednesday | SimpleStepsForLivingLife says:
    20th April 2018 at 6:59 pm

    […] How To Make Fabric Flowers – Pillarbox Blue […]

    Reply
  2. Faux Fabric Flowers From A Bedsheet | It's Handmade says:
    18th April 2018 at 10:30 am

    […] faux flowers. You can easily colour the flowers with a watercolour effect simply using Sharpies. Learn how to make them here.… Read […]

    Reply
  3. Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop #273 - Ducks 'n a Row says:
    17th April 2018 at 11:00 pm

    […] How To Make Fabric Flowers – Pillarbox Blue […]

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