DIY Singed Petal Fabric Peonies Tutorial

Here are some fabric flowers that I have made.  I was planning to make them as decoration for my wedding, but I have since decided to go with fall leaves instead.  Nevertheless, they are fun to make and they look nice.

I used this tutorial here by Creature Comforts.  

Materials Needed:

100% Polyester Fabric

Tea Candles

(Tip: use scented candles to created scented flowers)

Embroidery Floss

Needle

Thread

1. Cut circles of fabric to the size you want the flowers to be.  Your circles do not have to be perfect.  In fact, you can even just use rounded squares.
2. Make a few circles that are slightly smaller and smaller.  They will go in the middle.
3. Make 4 cuts around the perimeter of the circle.  Do not cut all the way to the middle.
4. Fold the circle in half and hold it up to the candle flame.  The petal should curl inwards.
5. Singe all the petal edges.  Try to get the petals to curve inwards as much as possible.
6. Layer the petals together to create the kind of flower you want.
7. Create a mini pom pom using the embroidery floss.  You can do this by wrapping it around and around 1-2 fingers and then tying a strip of floss in the middle.  Cut all the ends and trim the edges until your pom pom is round.  I find that less puffy and smaller pom poms are better since you just want it to look like the center of a flower.
8. Put the mini pom pom in the middle of your petal layers.
9. Use needle and thread to sew the pom pom and all the layers into place.
10. Your flower is now complete!

Optional:  Sew or glue a base on the flower underside to make it more sturdy and to hide your stitches.

Here are some examples of finished flowers using different kinds of fabric.

If you use a filmy, delicate 100% polyester fabric, your flower will turn out like this.

Note that larger flowers will be droopy and soft.  You will probably need to attach it to a more sturdy base.

Less layers of flowers with a large center pom pom will look like this.  

Note that the pom pom is flat, not full.  That looks better than a full pom pom so don't go crazy with the layers you wrap around your finger(s) to create the pom pom.  Less is more.

A thin 100% polyester satin fabric will look like this.  You can either have the shiny part on the outside or the inside, depending on which side of the fabric you hold upwards towards the flame.

A thicker 100% polyester satin fabric will look like this when finished.  The edges do not curl as much and you will need to basically melt the edges right up to the flame in order to make them curl.  You will be able to make the petal layers curl more by adding a bit of flame to the joints.  Don't melt holes, but add enough heat to make the fabric pucker. 

This flower is about 8 layers thick.  It will have a flatter look.

This flower is many layers thick and it is much taller.

Play around with different numbers of layers and size of flower until you get the style of flower you want.

 

Here's an example of what the thin, filmy fabric looks like compared to the thicker satin fabric.

You can experiment with layers different colours and types of fabric to create a new look.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  Go to the Creature Comforts blog for a more detailed tutorial with videos.

Enjoy!