Easy Fabric Roses You'll Make For Your Shabby Chic Decor

The Dye Inspiration For These Easy Fabric Roses

For whatever reason, I awoke at 1:30 this morning thinking about how to dye the fabric for these fabric roses. Back in high school, I dyed yarn with pokeberries, goldenrod, and some weeds and berries from our yard and fields. Right now there are not a lot of those in the landscape being as it is the dead of winter.

Brainstorming, it dawned on me that Kool-Aid would be a cheap and easy dye for this project. The fabric roses won’t need to be washed – no problem with the color fading or bleeding. The dye should be perfect for this project.

A Little Bit Of Research

When I finally got out of bed, I checked Pinterest to see if anyone else had used Kool-Aid for dyeing fabric. Yes, they have. Caitlin at Biscuits and Jam wrote a post on Dyeing Cotton With Kool-Aid. She compared different processes and different amounts of Kool-Aid used to dye yarn and how much is needed for a pale or darker color. If you are considering this process, it would be interesting to check out her post.

Caitlin writes that cotton and acrylic may seem to appear to soak up food-grade dyes, but those will wash out unless you use a fabric dye like Rit. (I rinsed the fabric strips after soaking them in the food dye and there was no bleeding in the cool water. Maybe the vinegar helped? I don’t intend to wash these in the washer so I don’t think that is relative.)

Somewhere else, I read that heating the Kool-Aid mixture increases the absorption of the Kool-Aid dye and none of the dye bleeds out in the rinse. It also seemed to decrease absorption time. A more subtle shade is what I’m hoping to achieve. So when Dave brought home bright cherry Kool-Aid for me, I opted to use the food dye in the pantry.

Supplies Needed For The Fabric Roses

Cotton Fabric
Scissors
Packets of Unsweetened Kool-Aid or Food Dye
White Vinegar
Low Melt Glue Gun
Low Melt Glue Sticks

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You can use a hot melt glue gun but be prepared to burn your little fingers repeatedly! The low melt glue gun is a lot more friendly. I used this glue gun for the balloon column I made last year. Yes, I used the low melt glue gun to attach extra balloons to the column! It was amazing and completely surprised me!

Preparing The Fabric For The Flowers

You should use cotton or cotton polyester fabric and be sure to wash it before trying to dye it. I’m using the remainder of the sheet used for the shabby chic wreath. Ideally, I would use a cotton fabric but this sheet did have some polyester in it and it works fine. You can cut the fabric on the bias to prevent fraying. If you don’t mind the frayed look, then just tear or cut across the fabric. I like the idea of the frayed thread, made a snip the width of the flower, and ripped the fabric across the entire length of the fabric. The frayed fabric just seems right for shabby chic, right?

First, decide how high you want the fabric flower to be. The smallest rose with no dye is torn to 1-inch width. The larger roses are torn to a 1-1/2″ width.

Prepare And Use The Dye Baths

To Use The Kool-Aid

Create a dye solution with 1 package of Kool-Aid, 3/4 cup water, and 1/4 cup white vinegar. Repeat this process for each dye color you want to use or mix flavors/colors if you want.

To Use The Food Dye

Or… use food dye! Remember that food dye is very concentrated and you might start by using a drop at a time. If you use the gel type, use a toothpick to add a tiny amount into the water. I decided to use the food dye thinking that I could control the color better.

For one of the roses, I used a couple of drops of pink liquid food dye and it seemed way too bright. I added a little gel violet. Well, that really didn’t tone down the color much. The pink color was pretty bright. So, I thought that adding gold, which I did not have, to the dye would create a rose-gold. Adding brown and yellow was an attempt to create that.

Heat this almost to boiling if you like. I chose to just use the dye at room temperature. Be sure to mix and use this bath where your work surface is protected unless you are incredibly neat.

Since the first was too vibrant, and I changed the dye colors a bit, I much preferred this muted color. (The vibrant pink colored fabric strip ended up being soaked in this dye bath, too. Toned down a little, I liked the end result.)

Add 3/4 of a cup of warm water and 2 tablespoons of white vinegar to a glass measuring cup.  In this bath, add 1 drop of red food dye, 1 drop of pink food dye, 1 drop of yellow food dye, and a little bit of brown on the tip of a toothpick.  (Create your own combination!) Stir.

Add a fabric strip to the measuring cup and make sure the entire strip submerges. Allow this to soak for 1/2 – 1 hour. In the sink, remove the fabric strips from the dye bath, rinse in cold water, and allow to dry. I actually put the strips in the dryer with a dry towel. It didn’t take long to dry.

Making The Roses

Although I’ve made hundreds of ribbon roses, this is the first time for this type of fabric rose. The ribbon roses, which I made, were always secured at the base of the flower bud using a needle and thread. This particular technique uses a glue gun.

How To Make The Roses

The first step is to fold the fabric strip in half widthwise.

Begin rolling the end of the fabric strip.

Continue rolling until you have a roll about 1/2″ in diameter. Dab a touch of the glue at the base to hold your work.

Fold the folded edge at an angle and bring the folded edge, (which is at the bottom now,) up close to the center roll of fabric. Wrap the folded edge around the base of the rolled center, turning the center into the folded loose fabric piece as you go.

Next, dab a tiny bit of glue at the base of the rose and press the bottom side of the loose edge into the glue.

Try to keep the top edge at the same level as the rolled center.

You can see the rose is beginning to take shape now.

Repeat The Process

When you get to the end of the folded edge, repeat the process of folding the doubled tail of fabric down and wrap the edge around the base of the rolled center. Dab a spot of glue, and press the bottom edge of the fabric tail into the glue. Repeat the process until the rose is the size you want. Remember to keep the top relatively at the same level. If the center is too high, it won’t look right.

Finishing Touches

Take the glue gun and add tiny spots of glue in strategic areas, if necessary, to hold the fabric strips in place. You can see the folds from the back in this picture. As you add the ‘petals’, you won’t be able to continue gluing to the base, your strips will end up being glued to a previous strip. These roses are meant to lie flat.

Dab glue on the underside of the fabric flower and press the tail into the glue. Trim any excess, if necessary.

Here you can see three different versions of folding the roses. You can make the darker pink rose on the right by following the directions above.

Instructions for Pale Pink Rose

The pale pink rose on the left starts with a rolled center as in the directions above but instead of folding the edge of the ribbon down once, it is folded down twice most of the time. If you compare the petals between the two, you will see the difference.

Instructions for White Rose

The white rose at the bottom began with folding the fabric strip down forming a triangle. Next, roll from the short end of the triangle inward. Then, fold the top edge back and secure at the bottom with a touch of glue. Then continue rolling the fabric strip around the base and folding the top back following the instructions in this post.