Tulips that Last All Year Long! (DIY #2)

L'Art de Faire des Tulipes en Tissu / The Art of Making Fabric Tulips

The Canadian Tulip Festival is celebrating its 60th commemorative edition this year. Thousands of visitors participate in this yearly festival to admire the 1 million tulips that are in bloom in Ottawa during this period. The tulip was a gift in perpetuity ti the Canadian people for providing a safe harbor to the Dutch Royal Family during the Second World War, and so the festival celebrates the tulip as a symbol of international friendship. The festival just started this year and it goes until May 21, 2012. For more info on the festival, please visit the official site at: http://tulipfestival.ca/site/whats_on/en. 

Unfortunately the tulip season doesn't last long. For that reason I have decided to share a little tutorial on how to make tulips out of fabric so that this beautiful flowers can decorate your space all year long! So here is our DIY#2: fabric tulips.

Materials:

- BBQ wood sticks

- fabric (cotton) 

- batting

- needle

- thread

1) Paint the BBQ wood sticks in green and wait until they're completely dry. In the meantime, you can cut all the fabric that you have chosen for the flowers in the following measurements: 5x9cm (tulip P), 7x13cm (tulip M) or 9x15cm (tulip G). The size and quantity of tulips may vary according to the size of your vase. 

2) For the tulip, fold your rectangular piece of fabric in half with the right side inward. Sew it sidelong. 

3) Then, make some stitches on one side to "wrinkle" it and leave a long thread to tie it up later.

4) Insert the tip of the BBQ wood stick through the seamless hand to the other side that already has some stitches. Pull the thread and tighten it up (make  a knot around the stick). 

5) Turn the fabric over the stick. Note that you will have the shape of a fabric glass in the tip of the stick. 

6) Fill it up with cotton batting.

7) With a needle, make only two stitches in the middle of the fabric "glass" to close it in the shape of the flower petals as seen in the photo. 

8) To finish it up, you can add a beads or buttons in the middle of the flower for decoration, then make as many tulips as you wish for your vase arrangement.

Credits: the original Portuguese-written version of this tutorial can be found here: http://tricoeafins.blogspot.com.br/2011/09/tulipas-de-tecido-passo-passo.html