How to Make a DIY Tulle Flower
Looking for a perfect scrapbuster for tulle? How about a tulle flower?
Have you ever made a gorgeous fluffy skirt out of layers of tulle circle skirts, and found yourself with a pile of circular tulle scraps leftover? I recently made the stunning new Sirena mermaid dress, and ended with a stack of tulle circles, left from cutting the tulle skirts for Sirena. I wanted to do a little scrap-busting project with those scraps instead of throwing them away, and I ended up making a tulle flower! Today, I am going to show you how to make a tulle flower using the scraps from Sirena. (And if you don’t have scraps, no worries! You can just cut some tulle circles.)
Making a tulle flower is easy! All you need is a stack of tulle circles. You can cut some, or use the scraps from a tulle circle skirt project, like Sirena. When you cut a circle skirt, you are cutting a larger circle out of fabric. The opening for the waist is a small circle, and when you cut a circle skirt on the double fold, you are left with a small scrap in a perfect circle. The Sirena pattern uses several layers of tulle, so once you are done cutting, you will have a small stack of tulle circle scraps. Save these, and you can make a tulle flower!
Prepping the Flower
First, stack all your circles. If you didn’t sew Sirena, you’ll need to cut a stack. Choose the size of flower you’d like, and cut 5-6 circles of tulle a bit larger than the size you want it to be finished. If you’re cutting your own circles, you can find a circle template to use, or just free-hand cut. The circle doesn’t need to be perfect! Stack your tulle circles up, and pin them together so they don’t shift. For this one, I trimmed a few of the circles to be slightly smaller than the others to give my tulle flower more dimension.
Next, trace a mug or glass onto a piece of paper. You want a nice even circle template, smaller than your tulle circles. The bigger the paper circle template, the smaller you finished tulle flower will be. The smaller the template, the larger your flower will be. Don’t make it too small or you won’t have enough of a “stem.”
Cut out the paper circle. Pin it to the center of your stack of tulle circles.
Constructing the Flower
With a long straight stitch, sew a line of gathering stitches around the paper template. Don’t sew through the paper, sew around the outside of it. Make sure to leave long thread tails, and do not backstitch.
Remove all the pins. Gently pull the gathering stitches until you have closed the inner circle completely. Tie off the thread tails to each other to anchor the gathering. Do not pull too tight, or the threads will break.
On the back side, where the “stem” is, pin or clip the fabric flat.
Sew back and forth across the stem multiple times. I left the stem nice and flat because I plan to sew it to a bag. If you want to make it a clip, you can make a longer stem and loop it up before sewing.
Remove the gathering stitches.
Embellish the center with a button if desired. I used a shell-shaped button, since I made this to match my daughter’s mermaid Sirena dress.
And your tulle flower is complete! I will be making a Dill bag for my daughter to match her Sirena dress, and this will be sewn on as an embellishment. You can also turn it into a hair clip, headband, or use it as an embellishment like I am!
I hope you have fun making a tulle flower using your tulle scraps from Sirena! If you make one, we would love to see! Tag us in your Instagram post at @booandlupatterns or share in our Facebook group.
