Oh my gosh! Magda of House of Estrela is here today sharing one of the cutest projects I’ve ever seen: fabric tulips! In a cup! I think the cup just adds to the cuteness. This would be a great project for Valentine’s Day. Older children could even help out sewing the tulips.
They’re so cute!
Read on for the full tutorial:
Hello again, Lulu & Celeste readers. I am Magda E., the person behind the sewing blog House of Estrela. I had the pleasure to have been featured in an interview with Ula not long ago, so maybe you still remember me? Today I am bringing you a tutorial for these Tulips in a Cup. I’ve learnt how to make these tulips very long ago, and for today I decided to give them a twist. I made miniature of them instead, and used a cup to hold them in. Aren’t they so cute?
Supplies:
1 small white cup
floral foam
several fabric scraps in red and white (or any other colors, if you wish – I used 5 different fabrics, and made two tulips with each, except for the one in the center, which is the only in that fabric).
needle and fabric coordinating thread
toy filling
green tape
9 toothpicks
5 craft styro-foam balls with a 2,2 cm (about 1″) diameter
two shades of green + red felt scraps
Glue gun
1. Use your cup to mark its size on the foam.
2. Cut a cube from it to carve it.
3. Put it side by side with your cup for lenght (you might have to cut a bit more later)
4. Carve it until it fits inside your cup.
5. Fill your cup and set aside.
6-7. Get to your toothpicks and the green tape. Roll the tape around your toothpick to get it as greenish as you wish. As an alternative, you can use florists green tape, you can paint them or roll some ribbon around it, using a drop of glue to secure it, at the beggining and end of each edge.
8-9. Cut the styro-foam balls in half.
10. Cut squares of your filling, they don’t need to be precise, but mine had about 7 cm (about 2 3/4″) each.
11. Cut a 9,5 cm x 6 cm (about 3,7″ x 2 3/8″ rectangle. Repeat for all your fabric options.
12. Fold rectangle widthwise and pin it.
13. Sew it with a 1 cm (3/8″) seam allowance (you can do less if you want to, but don’t do more).
14. Repeat for all the other scraps.
15. Finger press your seams open.
16-17. Insert toothpick inside one of the tulips. Baste around the edge, pull to gather, roll your thread around it a few times to secure better and sew firmly. Cut your thread (I haven’t cut mine right away, but I did later).
18. Grab a half styro-foam, put the filling under it, and stick the toothpick with the fabric attached to it.
19-20. Hold it firmly in your hand, and turn fabric to the right side.
21-22. Now, if needed, add a little bit more filling, but just enough. We don’t want it over filled. Pin the top. Repeat the previous steps for all your tulips.
23. Take the pin away and fold the edge about 1/4″ to the wrong side and press with your fingers.
24. With the seam in the middle, flatten it and make small stitches.
25-27. Open it, and flatten again on the oposite direction. Stitch a few times again in the center.
28. Your tulips are almost ready.
29. Place a tulip side by side with a folded piece of paper. Draw a half leave shape about the same lenght as your flower. Cut it on fold, remember.
30. With your leave pattern, cut 8 of them in two shades of green felt.
31. Use your glue gun in the bottom of the leave, use just a drop. Glue it to the flower as shown. Then press it to give shape to the leave and if necessary, add a little bit more glue to make sure everything sticks together nicely.
NOTE: make sure your tulip seam is facing you and the leave is facing down when you glue it. When you finish the piece, you’ll notice, every seam in facing inside and won’t show. I actually forgot this details in a few of mine, so make sure you don’t for a neat work.
34. We’re so close to the end. It’s time to start putting this together. Start with the one with no pairing if you have one like me.
35-38. Make sure you place the ones with the same fabric opposite to each other. I tried to put the very red ones, intercalated with the whitish ones. Make sure leaves are facing out, and that the centered one isn’t as pressed down as all the others.
40. Just one more thing, and we’re done. Let’s make it cuter, right? Grab the red felt scraps and free draft some heart shapes, cut it, and glue it to your cup. Congratulations, here’s a special gift for someone you care for. You can also use it as a table center piece for a romantic dinner. Either way, I hope that everything was clear, and that you enjoyed this tutorial.
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Thank you so much Magda for sharing this project with us. It’s so cute! I can totally see making the tulips with small scraps of favourite fabric. I can’t wait to make some with my girls!
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Thank you for having me. I am so glad you liked it.