DIY Project: Making flowers from laminated fabric

One thing I have been meaning to try as a DIY project is making laminated fabric. Tchibo had a laminator for sale some time ago – I just couldn’t resist :) The outcome was some colourful flowers which I will be using for a mobile for the nursery.

I admit it; I am addicted to fabrics :) Soon I will show you my collection, so you know what I am talking about. And for a fabric addict there is nothing nicer than using their favourite fabrics in many different ways.

For a while now I have been thinking about laminating fabric to make little cards or tags. I didn’t really know if it would work. But now I tested it and I have to say: really easy and quickly done, and the technique surely can be used for many other DIY projects.

In my first try I made three differently sized flowers and – after some trial and error – assembled a wind chime from them. I guess they’d make a good key ring pendant or nursery decoration as well. Here is the instruction for the DIY project!

Materials:

Different fabrics for the blooms
Colourful buttons for the centre of the flowers
Simple thick buttons to use as spacers between the layers
Laminator with sheets

The spacer buttons will add a more three-dimensional look to the flowers, which I liked. You can leave them out if you like.

Flower pattern to download:

I used two different blooms and a circle for each flower. You can download the pattern as JPG here if you like.

Crafting instructions for the DIY project “Making flowers from laminated fabric”:

First, cut the blooms from the fabric. Since the flower should look identical from both sides, one needs to cut the big bloom once, the little bloom twice and the circle twice as well.
Now insert the blooms into the laminator. Leave at least a 5mm margin between fabric and edge and at least 10mm between two pieces of fabric. The sheets will not stick together right at the edge of the fabric.
Lean back and let the laminator do the work :)
After laminating, cut the pieces out. As I said, the sheets will not stick together right at the edge of the fabric, so leave a margin of 5mm.
Once all five pieces have been cut out, they need to be thread. I pre-pricked the holes with a needle. Every piece needs two holes, as far apart as the button holes of the spacer buttons. Just use the buttons as a model.
When threading, start with a spacer button. Then follows the circle and the decorative button for the flower centre. Now thread back through the second hole of the decorative button, the fabric circle and the spacer button. Background: When everything is thread, you can knot the thread invisibly behind this first spacer button.
Now the other parts are thread with one of the two thread ends. Alternate between the laminated fabric pieces and the spacer buttons.
In the end, if everything went well, you should finish where you started. Knot the two threads and cut off the remaining pieces of thread. And that’s the DIY project “laminated fabric flower”!

I did this with three differently sized and shaped flowers:

First I wanted to use them decoratively with those small memo holders with clips. But this only worked with the smallest flowers, while the others were too heavy.

So I decided on a mobile. I bought three metal rings and wrapped them with felt. In every ring I hung a flower. This will definitely find its way to the nursery… if we ever – in between all these DIY projects – get to furnish it :D

Until then the wind chime has found a home at my sewing shelf where it looks nice despite the lack of wind. I hope you liked my little DIY project :)