Thread Beyond the Sewing Room

Silk Lotus Flower

August 3rd, 2009 in design, fabric, embellishments, extras

Kenneth King, contributor

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Silk lotus flower: The silk lotus flower is easy to construct, but looks very luxurious. You can make it in any size, but pick fabrics that tend towards stiff, like silk taffeta, or dupione. You can singe the edges of the petals with a flame (the flower here is singed), or just leave the cut edges raw. Also, after you master the basic technique, you can experiment with different petal shapes.

Cutting the petals: You will cut five units to construct the flower. Begin by cutting squares, measuring the size you want the flower. In our example, I’m using a 3” square. For the demonstration, I’m using paper, so you can see the process.

Fold the square in half.

Fold one side up in thirds.

Fold the other side up.

Fold the entire unit in half lengthwise.

Cut as shown.

Open it out, and one unit will look like this.

For the next step, you will have your five petal units, and a piece of crinoline.

Crinoline is a milliner’s interfacing, and is also customarily used as a base for fabric and ribbon flowers. If you don't have crinoline, use any stiff interfacing fabric.

To begin, hand stitch a circle in the center of one of the units, 3/8” around.

Draw this row of hand stitching up tight, and sew the center of the unit to the crinoline. The rows of stitching on the subsequent petal units will also be gathered, and sewn to the crinoline.

For the next four petal units, you will sew progressively larger circles before stacking each unit on top of the previous one. Since I’ve made the squares 3”, I’m using coins to show the progression of the sizes of these circles. Notice the largest circle, is 1/3 the total diameter of the petal unit.

Making progressively larger circles of stitching does two things--it reduces the diameter of each petal unit as the flower progresses, and creates padding for a larger flower center.

Unit two is hand sewn, and stitched to the first unit, through the crinoline.

This is what it will look like—the nub of fabric in the center of the first petal unit, will be contained inside the nub of fabric in the center of the second petal.

As you are sewing the petal units to the flower, make sure the ripples in the petals are evenly distributed around the flower—you can pull the petals one way or another and hand-tack, to achieve this.

Petal unit three is sewn and stitched to the first two units.

Petal unit number four is stitched and sewn to the developing flower.

The final unit number five, is stitched and sewn to the rest of the flower. Note the center of the flower—the nubs of fabric in the centers of the units, will pad out the final center, giving it a slightly rounded shape.

Turn the work over—you can see where it is sewn to the crinoline.

Trim the crinoline close to the stitches.

And here you have the finished flower. Fluff up the petals to give it life, and you’ll have a lovely flower!

posted in: design, fabric, embellishments, extras

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Comments (18)

CaitySue writes: This is a great idea! I think I must give it a try. Posted: 6:42 pm on August 26th

Honour writes: This is a beautiful flower. I plan to use the design to adorn a ring pillow for my daughter's upcoming wedding. I'll add ties for the centre of the flower and attach the works to a loosely padded cusion. Much prettier than my original design--what luck to stumble across this design at such an opportune time. Thanks. Posted: 10:18 am on August 23rd

LottaTroublemaker writes: I just love this flower, it's so beautiful! Thanks so much for posting it! :) I've bought several similar ones, how great not to have to do that and e able to choose the fabric you'd prefer! This must be so beautiful to make to adorn a pretty evening dress, e.g. a combination of different sizes... And also on a wedding dress as another poster mentioned!!!

I usually singe fabrics with either a long lighter I have (for lighting the fireplace) or using a candle for a handsfree version. For a real quick and not too big project, I usually just grab for the lighter. An ordinary lighter is not much fun to use for such things, they so quickly get too hot and it's easy to burn yourself. In my experience singing is NO PROBLEM whatsoever. It's very easy to do and I have never damaged fabric or set it on fire. The key is to move quickly and rather go back over it several times, until you have got the desired effect. Don't stop, that's when damage may happen. Natural fibres are the easiest to handle, as syntetics normally are way more flammable. I love to sew using polar fleece and often hand sew clothing for my Yorkshire Terrier (fleece is such a forgiving and easy fabric to hand sew, and you have such wonderful control in "molding" the garment while hand sewing, produces wonderful results, I think). I always singe the edges, as that not only gives an effect and prevent fraying, on fleece it clearly produces a much stronger edge too, so it is a way to make the garment more durable (nice for an active dog!). Most of the time I do an invisible singe, because I am not doing it to make it look different, but of practical causes. This of course would be different, as the darker edge looks great! Posted: 6:00 pm on August 21st

isisirena writes: I have found that a candle with a good flame and no air-current is a good combination that singes fabric. You have both hands to handle the fabric and move it back and forth to prevent the fabric igniting. Posted: 4:03 pm on August 14th

apatchinow writes: This has got to be the BEST article ever on making a fabric flower. The instructions are so clear it's idiot proof.
I am making one now in silk dupion and just using a lighter to singe the edges- carefully.Thank you Kenneth! Posted: 4:56 pm on August 11th

megadeb writes: Seriously, HOW do you singe the edges wihtout going up in flames.... seems to me that silk is highly flamable??? Any instruction would be great, would LOOOOVE to try this flower! Posted: 12:41 pm on August 11th

LaBarge writes: Many thanks for sharing such clear directions for a lovely accessory. Posted: 8:09 am on August 11th

Sophia.m writes: This flower is gorgeous and I would like to make it.
Please can you tell us how to singe the border without raising a fire. Sophia Posted: 3:41 am on August 11th

clothingeng writes: Love it! Posted: 9:31 pm on August 10th

pooh715 writes: Love it! This and the flowers for the article in Threads are just fabulous! Posted: 8:44 pm on August 10th

plusfabricsss writes: Kenneth is a blessing to me. My daughter wants one of these for her wedding dress and I have been hunting for a pattern for a few weeks now. Now to try and make it larger!!!
Thanks again. Posted: 8:22 pm on August 10th

DrOllie writes: Just finished this lovely flower in silk dupione, very elegant and very easy to work. A question for decoratice: can you be specific about the heat tool you use? It sounds like something I could use in my workroom. Posted: 8:17 pm on August 10th

costurita writes: hola, gracias por tu aportacion justo en estos dias tengo que confeccionar un vestido de novia que lleva flores en el corpiño y no sabia como iba a hacerlas pero con tu idea creo que tengo resuelto el problema, gracias Posted: 7:47 pm on August 10th

dynomite writes: Absolutely beautiful! Will definately try. Thank you. Posted: 7:37 pm on August 10th

decoratrice writes: Beautiful! Instead of singeing the edges with a flame, I'm going to try cutting out the units with my heat tool (a stencil burner/soldering iron/pyrography tool, depending on the tip used) Posted: 9:57 am on August 4th

kapnoel writes: I have been reading a number of instructions about making fabric flowers and this is by far the BEST. Thank you so much, dear Kenneth, for sharing this with us!
Elissavet Posted: 7:12 am on August 4th

Mamapicklejuice writes: LOVE this. Would probably go for $48 at Anthropologie if styled as a brooch. Posted: 7:27 pm on August 3rd