muslin rose tutorial

I love having flowers around the house and I have quite the collection of vases. I use them to add pops of color or sparkle around the house. But in the middle of winter fresh flowers are hard to come by and when you do find them they get a little expensive. I never really like fake flowers, they are usually on the cheesey side and the ones that actually look real tend to cost more than I’m willing to spend. Tired of looking my sad empty vases, I decided to make my own. These muslin roses are some of my favorite to make. They cost pennies and are so easy. I’ll do my best to show you how!

Here’s what you’ll need::: muslin
:: twigs – you’ll need one per flower
:: scissors
:: glue gunOh, and you might need a crafting snack – I sure did! Mine is a big glass of milk with ice and a scoop of the best rum fudge sauce straight from the fridge.

STEP ONE: make strips of muslin – mine are about 1 1/4″ for a 1 1/2″ diameter rose – muslin tears easily so I make tiny snips along the top of the fabric and then rip. This gives the edges a nice frayed look and it makes cutting go really fast!STEP TWO: fold your strip in half and tie a knot at one endSTEP THREE: begin twisting your folded muslin around your knotSTEP FOUR: tack down with a small dot of glue ever couple of twistscontinue twisting, folding and tacking with glue until you have reached desired size – you’ll want your twists to be tighter in the center of the rose and looser as you get toward the outside

STEP FIVE: leave a tail at the end of the rose – about 1″STEP SIX: take a twig – your stem – cover the end in glue and insert into the center of the back of the flowerSTEP SEVEN: begin tucking and gluing the tail around your stem to give a clean finished lookAll finished!

I used muslin scraps that I had from an old project and twigs from the back yard so this project literally cost me nothing. Make as many as you need for a pretty arrangement and enjoy beautiful flowers year round! Aren’t they pretty?

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