2 essential products for making 3D flowers out of fabric

Yesterday I showed you 2 ways to showcase thread in your quilting project by using Sulky Cotton Petites 6 Spool Thread Set – Rosewood Manor Assortment to quilt in straight lines and do some topstitching.

Today I’ll show you how to use HeatnBond EZ Print Feather Lite and Odif Fabric Booster to make some amazing 3D flowers and leaves out of fabric.

First I’ll transfer my leaf and flower shapes onto the HeatnBond EZ Print Feather Lite. Feather Lite is a paper-backed, iron-on, double-sided adhesive for bonding fabric without extra weight or stiffness. And it’s so nice to stitch through! You can use it in place of pinning or basting for applique shapes on quilts, wall hangings and attire. Feather Lite in the EZ Print package can be used in an inkjet printer to print directly on the paper backing. Unfortunately, I only have a laser printer, so I’ll trace my shapes by hand using a sharp pencil. Trace each shape the number of times indicated on the template sheet.

Here is the template that you can download and print.

3D Flower Fusible Applique Template

Next, I’ll cut all of the shapes out, leaving about ¼” around the outside of each.

Next, I’ll use my Oliso M2Pro Mini Project Iron and my 14” x 14” UNIQUE Quilting Wool Pressing Mat to iron each of these shapes onto the back of my chosen fabrics. Scraps of fabric that are around 4″ x 8″ will work here. Follow the manufacturer’s directions on the back of the package – you only need to press for a few seconds for it to fuse.

Next, I’ll peel off the paper backing from each of the shapes. It comes off quite easily compared to some other brands of fusible web I’ve used in the past.

I’ll iron these fabric shapes onto the back of the fabrics again. I chose to use the same fabrics for the front and back of the flowers, but you can always get creative and use a different fabric for the backings.

Next, I’ll cut these shapes out again, just inside the edge of the top shape. This ensures that the adhesive is all the way to the edge of each shape and there is no white fabric back showing.

To use the Odif Fabric Booster spray, I need to protect my work surface. I have some brown packing paper, so I’ll put that on top of my table. The scrunched-up areas of the paper will be great for drying the leaves into different shapes.

Now I’ll place all of my double-sided fabric shapes onto the paper and spray them with the Odif Fabric Booster. I’ll flip each shape over and spray the other side since the fusible web in the middle might prevent the liquid from soaking through.

I’ll shape my leaves and flowers into the 3D effect that I’m looking for. The leaves will dry on the paper.

The flowers will dry on top of a few spools of thread. I pushed the middle of each flower into the center of the spool and arranged the petals up or down.

The Odif Fabric Booster spray is also great to prevent fraying so I’ll spray the ends of the ribbons from the Unique Creativ Trim Pack – Red & Green I’m using for the flower stems.

I tried tying some bows with the organza ribbon from the pack, but they didn’t look very nice, so I’ll use the Odif Fabric Booster to help me shape them. First, I tied the ribbon into a bow, sprayed them with the liquid and then shaped and pinned them to my 14” x 14” UNIQUE Quilting Wool Pressing Mat to let them dry.

Now the hard part – waiting for all of these embellishments to air dry. I’ll leave them overnight and tomorrow we’ll finish the spring banner the ‘no sew’ way with Fabric Fuse by HeatnBond Quick Bond Fabric Adhesive.

This is part 4 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 3: 2 ways to showcase thread in your quilting project | 8 steps to WOW!

Go to part 5: No-sew embellishments – Easy with ribbons, buttons, and a little glue