free-motion flower stitch tutorial

I've been stitching some free-motion flowers for journals in progress.  And thought I would share the steps for those who might be interested...

The first couple of steps involve setting up your machine.  As far as I know, you have to have a machine foot that looks something like the one above.  It has an open stitching area and a spring thingie.  Mine is called an open toe free motion spring foot (they use them for free-motion quilting).  OR you can use the original free-motion process known as hand-stitching!

Set your machine stitch length (and width) to 0.  Drop the feed dogs too, that's important.

I'm using heavy canvas cloth; if you're using something lighter weight you will want to back it with interfacing or stabilizer. 

Decide where you want your flower's center to be.  You can mark it if you want, but you won't be stitching the center.  You're only stitching the 8 petals that will circle the center point.  For Petal #1, pin a scrap of fabric that's slightly longer than you want your petal to be, as shown above.

Go to your machine and begin stitching at the point of Petal #1.  If you aren't familiar with free-motion stitching you should know that you are controlling all movement of the fabric.  It's drawing with thread and machine, that's the only way to really describe it.  You can 'draw' one line of stitching or you can go around it a second time like I've done.

Your next step will be to remove the piece from your machine and, using sharp pointy scissors, trim around the outside of your stitch lines like so.

Now, this is important...If you want your petals to be remotely evenly spaced (it's fine if you don't!), Petal #2 should be stitched directly across from Petal #1 like above.  Make sense?

So now we have two petals stitched across from one another, and you're ready to cut around Petal #2.

Petal #3 will be stitched perpendicular to Petals #1 and #2.  See above?

So there's Petal #3 stitched and trimmed, and then you'll stitch Petal #4 directly across from #3 (like we did #1 and #2).

When you get to Petal #5, pin your fabric where it's centered between the petals on each side.  As you stitch, just keep an eye on those two other petals and know you'll want to be approximately centered between them.

You'll stitch #6 directly across from #5 and so on...

Continue to pin, stitch, trim until you get to that magical moment where you realize you've just finished Petal #8!

If you'd like, you can rough up the edges to make them fray a bit, like I did here...

And, other than stitching a button in the center if you'd like, you've just made a pretty free-motion flower.

Thanks for following along!

Comments

[rachel]

Groovy! Love this tutorial, thank you... I've always cut my small shapes out first, then free-motion stitched them, which can be difficult because the small pieces tend to shift and wrinkle in the process. I'll have to try it your way. Hope you're enjoying the springtime, & contemplating sharing your almond cookie recipe from the last post :) Hugs, rachel

[Leslie McNeil]

Simple. Sweet. Charming!

[pattisj]

Free-motion stitching doesn't look so intimidating when you break it down like that. Thanks!

[Karen B]

Thank you for this tutorial. I've been wanting to try this and didn't know how. I didn't really search either, but here you go! Perfect. Now I need to find the presser foot. I love your art!
Karen

[Dede Warren]

You have always stood out as a generous artist Rebecca; just one more reason to love the art, and the artist! Your Mama raised you right!

[Bobbie Lynn Duran]

Thank you for sharing that with us. Love your work!

[Linda Dunn]

Wow: All these years I've cut the shape first. This is so much more inviting. I'm going straight upstairs to try. Thanks!

[Cherie Wilson]

What a sweet treat to learn this, and inspire me to play today too........hmmm and even to share a thing or two myself this week. Your generosity is inspiring.
Thank you for your heart Rebecca!

[Mystic Blue Creations]

Thank you!This looks like fun!

[peony and co]

Merci, les explications sont claires, cela paraît assez facile. Je vais essayer.
Peony

[karen m]

It's so gorgeous, fun & fresh! Would love to try this!!

[Christy Hawkins]

Thanks so much for sharing your really springy idea. I think I'll give it a try!
Christy Hawkins

[Amy O'H.]

Love this tutorial! And the end results are even better.

[Beth McCrea Myers]

Thanks for the awesome post and idea! I am really enjoying looking up Journals on pinterest and that's how I found your site.

[Louise Murr]

wow...you made that look easy. Now I have to go try it. Thanks for sharing. You are absolutely the sweetest person....

[Rebecca]

Rebecca, you always have the coolest stuff here! Thanks for sharing this. I really need to practice my free-motion stitching, so this will be a great project to try!

[teri]

It would never have occurred to me to do it this way. I'm looking forward to trying it.

[Vanessa]

Awesome How-To's. Thanks for sharing :))