Crinoline Sunflower Tutorial

If you are a regular visitor here, you know I'm crazy about making flowers out of crinoline. I already have two tutorials on making crinoline flowers (here and here), but have had many requests for the three fall flowers I have made recently. This first tutorial is for making this sunflower.   Soon to be published tutorials will be on marigolds and on chrysanthemums.  You can enlarge the photos to see the details by clicking once and make them larger by clicking a second time.


If you can't find crinoline at your local fabric center, I have a limited supply available in my Etsy boutique here.

You will need:
Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die
Tim Holtz Tattered Leaves die
Yellow dye or reinkers
Green dye or reinkers
Something brown for the center - I like a button and brown burlap string
A 20 inch by 4 inch piece of crinoline
A small square of canvas for the leaves
Rubber gloves

Let's get started:

1.  Cut 5 flowers from the crinoline using the second largest flower on the Tattered Florals die.

2.  Mix your dye solution.  If I am making just one or two flowers, I mix my dye solution on my craft sheet.  If I'm doing a batch, I use a shallow bowl.  Here I have misted my craft sheet with water and dropped 3 drops of yellow reinker.  (all of the smaller brown marks are stains on my sheet - please disregard :).

Mix the water and the dye.  Wearing a rubber glove, I mix it with my hand.

Add more water or more reinker to achieve the strength of color you desire.  I often mix colors to achieve the shade of color I want.

3. Saturate your crinoline flowers in the dye solution.  Here you can see I didn't have enough dye solution so I quickly misted more water and added a couple more drops of reinker to fully saturate and color the crinoline.

4.  Let your flowers dry.  They will dry in a couple of hours.  Alternately you can dry them with your heat tool but don't get it too close or you will scorch the crinoline.





5.  Once dry, the crinoline will be nice and crisp again.  To give your flowers body, crinkle them up into a ball and then GENTLY unfurl them again.  This particular flower on my Tattered Florals die has a weak petal at the base and it frequently rips/falls off, especially during this step.  No worries, one missing petal will not be missed on the finished flower.


6.  Because this flower doesn't have a brad or pin, I glue the layers together from the bottom up.  (The arrow is pointing to where one of the petals fell off this flower).  The glue I use is Fabri-Tac by Beacon Adhesives.  Buy it at Jo-Ann's with your 40% off coupon!  It is also the glue I use for making my cards - no warping like water-based glue does.

7.  Continue gluing layers until all 5 are stacked and glued.

8.  Add whatever center piece you wish

9.  I used the Tattered Leaves die to cut leaves out of canvas and dyed them with a green reinker.  They ravel a bit, but I like the shabby look.  I glue two leaves together in a cluster and then glue the sunflower on top. 

All finished - a beautiful crinoline sunflower ready to embellish a special project.  Warning:  If using as a clothing embellishment, please be aware that stamping inks are not color safe.

I hope you found this tutorial to be helpful. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section here.  I will update the post with the requested information/clarification so all will be informed.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for any comments you care to leave.

Post Updates:
Reader's Question - what reinker did I use?  Here I used Stampin' Up's Daffodil Delight.  Sometimes I add a hint of So Saffron or a really tiny bit of Pumpkin Pie to mellow it out a bit.
Reader's Question - where can I buy crinoline?  Try your local sewing center.  If they don't have it, I do sell it in my Etsy shop here.  You can also try buckram, which might be more readily available.  It is heavier and stiffer than crinoline and generally about twice as expensive.