zig zag gathered fabric flowers TUTORIAL

ok, so i couldn't come up with a cool name for these flowers. anyone else got something better than my pathetic "zig zag gathered fabric flowers?" 

anyways, onto today's tutorial. i'm going to show you the basics and you can take it from there. you can do so many different things with this. even my mom was telling me ideas for it {she's not the real crafty type...} but seriously, headbands, skirts, home decor, pillows, shirt accents, etc.

first, cut strips of fabric and iron each side over as shown. 

for the bib necklace size flowers, i cut 4" wide strips. for the cork board wall hanging i cut 12" wide strips.

next, you'll draw a zig zag on your fabric using a fabric marker. 

for the necklace, i made the base of each triangle 1.5" apart. for the cork board flowers the bases are 6" apart.

then you'll take a needle and thread and sew long stitches along your zig zags. 

pull the thread to create the gathers or petals.

for the bib necklace flowers, i cute small circles of fabric and wrapped the strip of gathered petals into a circle, starting at the center. i hot glued in place, but you could sew in place if you wanted. 

for the 2 side flowers, that's just one layer of petals. the middle flower is two layers. to attach the flowers to the necklace, i just hot glued in place and put felt over the back.

for the cork board flowers, i did not use fabric circles on the back, i just hot glued the strips directly onto the cork board. 

this is a really simple technique that can be used in many different ways for many different things. i'm thinking a fun pillow is next on my list! :)

happy crafting!