How to Make a Fabric Flower into a Brooch

 

 Pictured: Wool felt lily worn on green vintage sweater coat

Do you want to wear a fabric flower you've made as a brooch? Of course, you could always just pin in on with a straight pin or a safety pin, but if you want to affix a permanent pin so that your fabric flower is a brooch as well as a fashion accessory, it's easy to do in just a few quick steps. 

Here are the materials you'll need:

  • felt scrap (if your flower is wool blend or 100% wool fabric, just use a bit of the same felt; if not, craft felt will work fine)
  • craft glue
  • pinback jewelry component (these come in several sizes)
  • sewing needle and thread (optional - you only need these if you prefer to sew, rather than glue, the pinback in place 

The first step is to cut two circles that will fit on the center back of your flower. To make a quick circle template, draw around a coin, such as a quarter or dollar, and then tape it to your felt and cut out the circles. Cut the circles one at a time, since the felt is thicker than fashion fabric.


Sew or glue the pinback to the felt. It usually works best to attach it above the center, rather than across the center, of the circle so that the flower won't flop over when worn. You can test the placement first, if you like, by pinning the flower's center to a garment and determining whether or not it droops.

Once you've attached the pinback to a felt circle, either by sewing (as pictured above) or by gluing it in place, set the other felt circle on top of it. Mark the "bumps" on each side of the pinback with a light pencil mark or a straight pin; make a small slit in the felt in the two places where you've marked it.

Next, apply glue to the circle where the pinback's attached.

 

Fit the marked circle with the slits over the glued circle and push the two circles together firmly. Allow a few minutes for the glue to dry.


Now, you're ready to glue your pinback to the flower. Hold the flower up and rotate it until you've decided how you want it to look This won't matter on some flowers that are totally symmetrical, but if your flower looks best at a certain angle, you'll want to make sure that, when your pinback is in place, that's the way it looks. Once you've decided on placement, simply glue your prepared pinback to the center back of your fabric flower.

 
That's it! Now you're ready to pin your flower to your favorite sweater, top, dress, jacket, or coat and make your own unique fashion statement. If you'd like to learn how to make the wool felt lily flower pictured above as our example, see my article How to Make a Wool Felt Lily with Needle Felted Accent Color.

Note that it's not strictly necessary to fit a second felt circle over the first (although I think it's a nice touch and makes it more secure). Also note that some pinback components cannot be sewn in place because they have no holes in them. The example below shows a pinback with no felt cover and no sew holes so that it had to be glued in place.