custom fabric flowers with layers of love

For the past 11 years, it’s been my Valentine tradition to make one of a kind fabric flower pin accessories.

stack of fabric

Many of the shapes of my flowers come from a 100 year old metal die collection (kinda like industrial cookie cutters) to cut petals that I layer together and hand-shape into my signature flower pins.

flower dies

Once cut, I i fill a shallow plastic tub with a solution of 6:1 Water: Mod Podge and soak for anywhere from 10 seconds to two minutes (for leather) till they've absorbed the solution, and wring out the excess. This extra step is what helps make the hand-cut petals more pliable and to keep the fabrics from unraveling.

soak flower petals in mod podge

Then twisting, shaping and folding the leather flower petals – one by one to get it just so.

Next, I hang them upside down to dry overnight on cookie-cooling racks.

flower pins drying

Once the foundation of the 6-12 layers of petals, I choose my center piece. Sometimes it's a vintage button, but i also will make small looped leather tassels, a bundle of tiny petals as stamen, or vintage millinery pips.

leather and vintage button center posts for fabric flowers