DIY T-Shirt Flowers

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Every year about this time I have the overwhelming urge to run through my house yelling “Fall is coming!  Fall is coming!”  Fall is absolutely my favorite season and I could probably write an entire blog post about why I love it so much.  Maybe I will.  Lucky you.  For now I’ll just enrapture you with some fun and easy DIY fall projects.

No one else in my house quite understands my love of seasonal decorating.  If I left my mom to her own devices we might decorate for Christmas and that would be it.  It’s a travesty!  If I could {and one day I will} decorate for each and every holiday I’d figure out a way to make a Christopher Columbus pillow so that no holiday was left out.  It’s that intense.

After a year of living here I have finally convinced my family to let me do a little more decorating.  The key with this bunch, though, is to start small.  So I started with a couple of DIY projects for my grapevine wreath.  We don’t really ever use the porch or front door so it’s the perfect way to help me feel like I’m decorating without alerting the occupants to any actual decorating going on.  That’s the important part.  Allow them to live in their blissful decorating-free existence until one day…BAM…things are decorated.

I might eventually make them love decorating as much as I do but I won’t hold my breath.  Blue isn’t really my color.  So as long as I can decorate and they can pretend like decorating isn’t going on we’re pretty happy campers.

I saw this idea for t-shirt flowers forever ago and briefly considered doing them for the fourth of July but I was out of town so they got put on the back burner.  I tried making them with leftover scraps but the fabric was too thick and heavy and they were an epic fail.  So they got put on hold again.  Until fall rolled around and I decided to actually try them with t-shirts.

I didn’t really want to go out and buy some brand new t-shirts just to cut them up so I raided my closet instead and pulled out an orange and a white t-shirt that were too small or had holes in them.  I haven’t decided how I’m going to Halloween it up yet but the orange and white are perfect for fall.

These are SO easy to make and even if you’re going out and buying t-shirts it’s a pretty inexpensive way to decorate your wreath for any season.  You could also use these for table decorations, place markers, the ideas are endless!

What You’ll Need

T-shirt in the color of your choice
Scissors
Foam Core or Cardboard (to make your forms)
Box Cutter (to cut forms)
Pipe Cleaners (to attach to your wreath)

Directions

1. Decide how big you want your flowers to be and cut a form from your cardboard or foam core.  I used foam core and scissors so that’s why my edges are ragged.  It’s not that serious.  Cut a wedge out of each form so they’re identical.

2. Cut the hem off your t-shirt and then cut just under the arm pits.  If you’re using an old t-shirt just make sure you cut it underneath any writing.  Cut into strips that are about half an inch to an inch wide.  If you’re using a larger form you’ll want bigger strips.  If you try and use large strips on a small form your flower won’t look as full.

3. Lay one of your forms on the table and lay a strip of material over it so the ends point down.  Lay the other form on top, sandwiching the material between the two forms.

4. Take your strips and wrap them around the form, adding a new strip until you have wrapped strips around in about 3 or 4 layers.

5. Using your scissors cut the strips between the forms.

6. Remove one form then wiggle the ends of the strip you sandwiched in step three and tie it, pulling tightly.  Remove the second form and tie again.

7.  Adjust and fluff the ends of the flower, trimming with scissors where necessary.

8. If you’re planning on using this on a wreath or in a vase as a flower arrangement then you’ll want to add the pipe cleaner.  I pushed a pipe cleaner under the tied strip on the back and twisted it around itself.

Aren’t they adorable?You can skip the pipe cleaner step if you want to use these for something else but the pipe cleaner allowed me to thread it through the branches of my wreath and keep the flowers secure.  If you’re going to use them in a vase I recommend using either a green pipe cleaner or wrapping it in floral tape.  Or both!

These really turned out super cute and I can’t wait for you to see the finished wreath!  On Wednesday I’ll show you what I stuck in that empty spot and how I did it.

Oh, and in case you needed some other ideas on how you can use these super easy flowers…

My sister saw me making these on the couch and decided to model one for you guys.  “Make sure you put that on the blog!” she said.  So, there she is.  And these really would be super cute to add to a headband.

How do you usually decorate your wreath for the fall?  Do you have any fall decorating must haves?  Let me know in the comments below!