How to Embellish a Flower on Jeans for a Girl

Some buttonhole twist thread will hold your flower applique onto the jeans.

Jeans are a perfect canvas on which to display your embellishment skills. You can take an ordinary, inexpensive pair of store-bought jeans and raise them to the level of art with some floral embellishments. There are many ways to put flowers on a pair of commercial jeans, but the easiest methods are sewing on commercial appliques, fusing on floral fabric and making your own appliques out of fabric scraps to be stitched onto the jeans.

Things You'll Need

• Girl's jeans
• Flower appliques
• Floral Fabric
• Paper-backed fusing web
• Fabric scraps
• Sewing machine
• Steam iron
• Needle
• Buttonhole twist thread

Instructions

Iron-on Commercial Applique

1. Wash and dry the jeans; press. Pin the appliques to the jeans to check their placement. Turn on the iron and set it on the cotton setting.

2. Place the first applique on the jeans. Put the hot iron over the applique. Hold it there for 10 seconds.

3. Remove the iron. Allow the applique to cool. Thread a needle with the buttonhole twist in a color that matches the jeans or applique. Tack a few edges of the applique down with the thread, to reinforce the fusible backing on the applique.

Printed Fusible Flowers

1. Cut out some flowers from the floral print, leaving a margin around the flowers. Cut pieces of fusible paper-backed webbing in the same sizes. Set the iron on cotton setting.

2. Lay the cut-out flowers on top of the glue side of the fusible webbing. The wrong side of the fabric should be next to the webbing. Lay the iron on top for 10 seconds. Let the flowers cool.

3. Cut out the flowers more carefully, closer to the outline. You will be cutting through the fusible web as well. Peel the backing from the fusible web. Place the flowers where you want them on the jeans. Place the iron on top for 10 seconds. Let the flowers cool.

Sewn-On Scrap Applique

1. Draw a flower design on paper. The design can be made of several pieces, such as a circle for a flower center and separate petals. Trace the design on the paper side of the fusible web.

2. Fuse the web side of the fusible web to your chosen fabric. Cut out the applique and peel off the paper backing. Pin the applique to the garment and check its placement.

3. Fuse the applique piece to the jeans with the iron. Stitch around the edge of the applique with a satin stitch on the sewing machine. You can also stitch the edges down by hand, with very closely spaced stitches.

Tips & Warnings

• If you decide to sew on the scrap applique flower by hand, you can omit the fusible webbing and simply turn the edges of the flower pieces under as you applique by hand.

References

• Simplicity: How to Make Embellished Jeans
• Easy Sewing the Kwik Sew Way: Kerstin Martenssen