Valentine's Day Fabric Flower Topiary Tutorial

If you are like me and love to sew, and you like to do it often...You inevitably find yourself being overcome by scrap fabric! Ahhh!! I feel like my scrap fabric pile is starting to develop an evil laugh. And at some point it will grow arms and legs and come after me. (If you feed something long enough, that's what happens right?) Ok...I'm exaggerating just a little bit, but because I sew so much I have a lot of scrap fabric, therefore I am always trying to think of projects that will "eat up" some of those scraps! I'm sure by now you have all figured out that I love fabric flowers. (I love them almost as much as I do ruffles, and you know how I feel about ruffles=my very fav!) I love getting rid of scrap fabric and I love fabric flowers so today's DIY project combines these two things. This project was inspired by a friend of mine who made the most beautiful fabric flower bouquet for her daughter's wedding. It was unbelievably beautiful, even though it was made of fabric flowers it rivaled any real flower arrangement I have ever seen! (And it will last forever, unlike my wedding bouquet that I have tried to save for 13 years now...Let's just say it doesn't look as beautiful.) So when I saw this bouquet it inspired me to make something out of fabric flowers to display in my home. (Since I have no weddings in my near future.) Today I made a Valentine's Day themed Topiary out of Fabric Flowers. You also, probably know by now that I also love to make things without having to buy anything. So today's project was done without me buying a thing! I used only things (scraps) I already had around the house.

To get started I just made lots of fabric flowers. I made them out of all the Valentine's Day colored scrap fabrics I could find in my "evil" pile. (Pinks, reds, whites, prints, solids etc.) I made lots of different types of flowers to make it interesting and give it more dimension and depth.


Then I made a ball using some old paper packing paper, I smashed it up into a ball as shown here:






















Then I completely covered the ball of smashed paper in duct tape to give it some strength and hold the circular shape.

Then I went outside and found a stick. (It was from a branch off my Christmas Tree, I just peeled off all the small branches that went out to the side leaving only the vertical branch as shown)

I then inserted the stick into the ball of paper and secured it with duct tape so it stood straight and firm. Notice the ball of paper is now completely covered with duct tape and is ready to have the fabric flowers attached!

Then I just started attaching the fabric flowers to the duct tape ball using my hot glue gun. Completely cover the ball with the flowers. Try to place the flowers so you cannot see the duct tape ball. If you have small spaces where it shows through, I just glued a button, glitter gem or colored it red or pink with a Sharpie marker.

I also used some satin ribbon I had to wrap around the stick to make it look prettier and tied a bow at the top of the stick.

For the base of the topiary, I used a glass jar, placed the stick inside and placed many glass gem rocks to fill the jar and hold the stick/topiary in place.

1/26/13: Update, After having the topiary on the table for weeks now, I have changed the base to a bigger, pink watering can and used Plaster of Paris to secure the topiary stick inside the watering can. (My kids jump around A LOT! And it was fine until they started jumping and then it would tip over. So after using the bigger base and the Plaster of Paris, it's not moving!) So I would recommend using a bigger base container and Plaster of Paris is heavy when dried, it works perfect for a solid base.

Keep placing the flowers on until the ball is completely covered.

















This is the end result. Not bad for using scraps around the house!
Now I have a new Valentine's Day Topiary to go with the quilted table cloth I made years ago. And my scrap pile has gone down some!! (Maybe it won't eat me today, he, he!)