Primitive Sunflowers From Fabric Scraps

We still laugh about the one and only time I planted sunflowers at one of our homes.

At the time we lived in Texas and I had the ambitious idea to plant the tallest growing sunflowers along one side of our rental house – with help from the kids of course.  My son and I dug the small holes and dropped the seeds in, covered them up, and moved on to the next spot.  Little did we realize that my 2 year old daughter was following along behind us and digging up those same seeds and putting them in other areas in the yard.

By the time I realized what she had done it was too late.

That year we had huge sunflower plants growing everywhere.  The biggest one of course was in the most inconvenient place in small flower bed right at our front door.  It was so big and tall that we had to bend over to walk in and out of the door.

Good times and some good memories.

 

THIS POST IS PART OF THE SUSTAINABLE PINTEREST CHALLENGE.  THIS MONTH’S THEME IS nature.

 

 

 

Below is a list of the creative bloggers participating this month.  Be sure to read to the end of this post to see the link for each upcycled project.

Julie | Sum of their Stories

Gail | Purple Hues and Me

Julie | Treasures Made From Yarn

Terri | A Good Life

Ann | The Apple Street Cottage

T’onna | Sew Crafty Crochet

Donna | Modern on Monticello

Allyson | Southern Sunflowers

Jo | Rose Tinted World

Niki | Life as a LEO Wife

Marianne | Songbird

Mel | Decor Craft Design

 

 

 

Those memories of my kids standing underneath that giant sunflower is probably why I love to paint sunflowers on projects. And also why I was inspired to make these primitive sunflowers for the Sustainable Pinterest Challenge when I came across this inspiration pin a few weeks ago.

This post contains affiliate links which help to support this blog at no additional cost to you.   I hope you find or create something new with what you find through these links.

 

Everything for this project I was able to pull out of the surplus in my craft stash so it is a double win for me to complete a project and to get a few more things out of the craft stash.

 

So let’s make some primitive sunflowers!

For this project you will need:

• Mason jar lids and rings
• Fabric scraps
• Poly-Fil
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Pack of 1/4″ x 12″ Dowel Rods
• Hammer
• Nail
• Small block of wood

 

Thankfully I still had in my fabric stash some heavy duty white denim ribbon.  A more heavy duty type fabric works best to make the sunflower petals for this project, but I also made a one with just cotton fabric and didn’t have a problem.  

The dowel rods are for the stems of the primitive sunflowers and there is a method to getting them attached to the ring of the mason jar.  Don’t worry it is very easy to do.

You just need to put one edge of the mason jar ring on the side edge of the wood block.  This not only helps to hold the ring in place but gives a firm foundation to hammer in the nail to make a hole for the dowel rod to slide in to.  A few hits of the hammer on the end of the nail and it very smoothly creates a small hole in the ring.

 

 

The hole it leaves behind is still a bit too small for the 1/4″ dowel rod so I used the nail to bend and expand the opening a little bit more – but not too much that the dowel rod won’t stay in place.  A dab of hot glue helps to hold the dowel in place afterwards.

 

 

The fabric scraps make the petals of the primitive flower.

The petals for the primitive flowers are made from cut strips of fabric.  I measured and cut my fabric strips to 7 inches in length but the widths were different and random sizes. 

I wanted the fabric strips to have that worn and aged look so I intentionally pulled tiny strands out of side edges for a  frayed look. 

 

 

Each strip was then tied around the mason jar ring in a double knot all and pushed close together to create a very full look of flower petals.

 

Scrap fabric pieces, a dowel rod and a mason jar ring is all you need to make these easy DIY primitive sunflowers for Fall.

 

 

 

 

Making the decorative center of the primitive sunflower.

The center of the primitive sunflower is more adorable with some fun decorative Fall themed fabric.  And it needs to have some stuffing in it to stand out more.  So first, I hot glued a small amount of poly-fil to the top of the mason jar lid.

 

 

You will need to cut a 5 inch square piece out of the decorative fabric and stuff it in the middle of the mason jar ring. 

Then, push the lid with the cotton batting into the ring.  This takes a bit of an effort because the fit is tighter because of the fabric strips and the dowel rod so of course I totally forgot to take a picture of this part because it was a two handed process.

 

 

 

After inserting the lid, cover the back of it with the ends of the decorative fabric square and glue then down with the hot glue.  But you are not done yet.  The back of the primitive sunflower needs to look as good as the front.

 

 

Trace a circle with a sharpie marker of the outside edge of another mason jar lid ring either out of the same decorative fabric or a coordinating style.  If you don’t want the back and the front of the flower to match that is okay.  Cut out the fabric circle and place it over the folds of the large square piece used to make the front.  You can also add more poly-fil to the back side of the sunflower too if you want it to be puffy on each side.

 

 

Use the hot glue to attach the cut out circle over the back section of the flower.  Now the front and the back of the primitive flower both look nice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For these photos I used a Styrofoam pumpkin as a decorative holder for the primitive sunflowers.  These would also be adorable with a vase full of faux sunflowers and other fall floral.  

 

 

Be sure to visit all of the other talented bloggers who participated in the Sustainable Pinterest Challenge this month and see their version for the nature theme.

 

Hugs,

1 Thessalonians 5:16 “Rejoice always.”