There’s nothing more I love in winter than creating flowers, and these easy DIY fabric flowers make a really fun heart wreath.
Usually one of the first things I like to do after the Christmas holiday season is create some kind of heart project. Valentine’s Day is coming, and while hearts are great all year round this time of year is especially perfect for creating a new heart wreath.
While I don’t make a lot of seasonal changes in my decorating, I do like to change out my wreaths for most seasons and holidays. And I don’t just put them on the front door. I like to hang them on room doors as well.
Scrap fabrics for creating fabric flowers
To create my fabric flowers I’m using the same thrifted scrap fabrics, shown above, that I used when I made this DIY fabric scrap rag heart wreath. I love the combo of these textures and patterns. I have a red and white ticking, a flannel, a polar fleece, and some polyester. The pic above is from my rag heart wreath project. I’m not using that metal heart form for this wreath. You’ll see what I’m using later on in this post.
The first thing you need to do to create the fabric flowers is cut out a whole lot of circles. How many is really up to you and the size of wreath you want to make. I’m making a large one so I made a bunch of circles in two sizes: 5″ and 4″ across. I just used a couple of bowls for templates, traced around with a pencil and cut them out. They don’t have to be perfect.
Supplies needed for this fabric flowers heart wreath
- fabric scraps
- bowl of something to use to create circles
- ruler
- scissors
- needle and thread
- iron
- foam core
- utility knife
- glue gun and glue sticks
- small piece of heavy jute twine
Once you have a bunch of circles they need to be folded in half and pressed with an iron.
When I had all my pressed circles ready to go I grabbed some scissors and my needle and thread and plunked myself in front of the tv to watch a Hallmark movie while I made my flowers.
For my first flower I used 6 of the pressed circles.
Steps for creating easy fabric flowers
- 1: Baste along the open edge of the half circle using a long stitch, about half an inch. Use a long piece of thread and leave a couple of inches on the end.
- 2: Pull the thread to create a petal
- 3: Here’s what it looks like when you’ve basted across the open side.
- 4: Add a second petal using the same process as the first, using the same thread.
- 5: Continue to add petals using the same thread.
- 6: When you’ve done all the petals, tightly tie the two thread ends to create your flower.
This is what the front of the fabric flower should look like. At least I consider this to be the front, but if you think it should be the back that’s ok.
You can create flowers using 5 or 6 petals. Whatever looks good to you. It can also depend on the type of fabric you use. I did some of both.
Here’s what I consider the back. Honestly, this flower could go either way.
I just kept making flowers as I was watching the movie, and when the movie was done I had a bunch ready to create my heart wreath.
Once you get in a groove making each flower goes very quickly.
Creating a heart wreath frame using foam core
To create my wreath frame I used a sheet of foam core, but you could certainly use cardboard as well. I didn’t have a piece of cardboard that was large enough, so the foam core worked great.
- To create a heart wreath frame from foam core do a dry fit of the flowers in a heart shape on the foam core sheet and pencil around that to get a rough outline of a heart shape. I’m making a large wreath; it’s about 18″ tall.
- Cut out one side of the foam core using a utility knife.
- Mark that half heart shape onto a scrap paper that is placed underneath.
- Cut out that paper piece and use it to outline the heart shape on the other side.
- Cut out the second side of the heart, and roughly draw the inside heart shape using the outside shape as a guide.
- Cut out the inside of the heart. Keep that inside heart shape for a future heart project.
Once I had my heart shape cut out, I wanted something to cover it up. I chose a glittery white garland. To add this garland I applied hot glue down the middle of the foam core frame and pressed the middle of the garland into it.
There are many things you can use to cover up the foam core. It’s really just about what you have and the look you’re going for. I happen to love this $1 thrifted garland, of which I used about half for this project. You can see it in my large ornament Christmas wreath as well. This type of garland is great for filling in any gaps that might appear when wreath making.
The one problem with this garland is that it’s a little all over the place, which is great when it’s on a Christmas tree. But I wanted it to be flat so my flowers would sit nicely. So I grabbed whatever heavy things I had around in my craft room and placed them on top of the garland and I left it like that overnight. The next day it was nice and flat.
Adding fabric flowers to the heart wreath frame
Before gluing my flowers on, I went into my stashes and found bits and pieces to glue onto the centers. This is really the finishing touch for the fabric flowers.
Then I glued my flowers on top of the garland in a way that looked good to me. Starting with the larger ones on the bottom. You don’t need a lot of glue for this. Just some around the center of each flower. The flower will hold onto the middle area of the garland that is glued onto the foam core.
You could certainly just do one layer if you like, but this doesn’t quite have the heart shape that I was looking for.
The smaller flowers were glued on top to cover the gaps between the larger flowers, and to really fill in the heart shape. Again you don’t need a lot of glue here, just enough to attach the smaller flowers onto the larger ones.
Adding a hanger to the back of heart wreath frame
To hang my heart wreath I glued on a small piece of heavy jute twine. Make sure to add some glue on top of the twine as well so it won’t unravel.
And here’s my scrap fabric flowers heart wreath hanging on my living room door. My front door has my DIY faux chocolate box heart wreath on it right now, but I can change them up anytime I like.
This was such a fun project, and while it wasn’t a quickie project I now have this fun and funky heart wreath to enjoy for years to come.
I hope this project has inspired you to create a fabric flowers heart wreath for yourself. It can really be customized to your own style depending on the scrap fabrics you use.
If you’re like me and you love flowers, it’s a nice way to bring a garden feel into your home decor in the winter time. I often leave heart wreaths up for the entire winter because hearts aren’t only for Valentine’s Day. They’re for every single day.
It would be greatly appreciated if you would pin this project to your favorite Pinterest board, and also share it with your friends.
Thanks so much for reading and until next time,
keep on keepin’ on!
XOX
