How to Make a Ruched Fabric Rose

Create eye-catching craft projects using excess fabric.

Fabric scraps are a common sight, whether from leftover craft projects or on clearance at your local fabric store. Instead of throwing away or stashing scraps, you can quickly and easily recycle these pieces of fabric into creative ruched roses, which can be used as embellishments on clothing or accessories like hair bands or purses.

Things You'll Need

• Fabric
• Iron
• Fabric marking pen
• Needle
• Matching thread

Instructions

1. Cut a piece of fabric to the dimensions of 1.5 inches wide and 1 yard long.

2. Fold the fabric piece lengthwise. Take your iron and run it across the fold line to keep it in place.

3. Mark the fabric using a water-soluble fabric-marking pen, starting at one end, with a series of diagonal lines that stretch from one side of the fabric to the other. This zigzag pattern will create the look of interlocking triangles across the entire length of the folded fabric. Make sure all the triangles contain a 90-degree angle.

4. Use a running stitch to sew the folded fabric together, following the lines you marked on the fabric. Start with the raw edge and move toward the folded edge.

5. Push the needle through the back of the fabric when you finish each line you sew. Loop the thread back around to the front.

6. Push the fabric toward the end you started sewing on to create "petals" after every few inches you stitch. Continue sewing and gathering until you reach the other end.

7. Thread a new needle with the same color thread.

8. Curl the first couple inches of gathered fabric to create a spiral, starting with one end of the fabric as the center of the spiral. Tuck the tail of the gathered fabric strip under the spiral and stitch or tack them together with your new needle. Continue spiraling and tacking the fabric around the fabric center to create a circular "rose" that gradually gets larger as you continue to curl the fabric.

Tips & Warnings

• As you curl the fabric, keep the folded edge facing out for a cleaner looking rose, or keep the raw edge out for a more ragged rose.

• Experiment with different lengths and widths of fabrics to create different-sized roses.

• Gather carefully. If you push too hard, you can break the thread.