DIY: A Fabric Birthday Corsage

I had a hankering to craft a birthday gift for my dear friend, Molly, who came up to the city last weekend to stay with me and celebrate. When I was in NYC earlier this Spring, I went a little CRAZY buying fabric with Amanda of Untamed Petals. So I have stacks of this gorgeous fabric and am not sure what to do with it! I decided it was time to get to work and USE my lovely yards of NYC fabric for gifting...so I created a quick and easy fabric strip rosette corsage. I know there are TONS of great DIY tutorials on how to make fabric pins, but here's my super fast version. Forgive the image quality, I can't seem to locate my camera charger (moving, boxes, you know how that goes) so I was stuck with the iPhone to capture the project.

Start by cutting strips (they do not have to be perfect or totally uniform in width, just keep them relatively the same in length) of fabric. It doesn't take much to make these, so it's great for using up scraps you have lying around. You can also mix and match fabrics too!

Layer the strips in a criss-crossed manor...I doubled up two strips per layer, but there is no rhyme or reason to how you do this step.

Once they're all layered, do a big pinch to gather the layers together. I use a couple dabs of hot glue to keep the layers in place before I did this. Then get out a needle and thread for a really quick rough stitching...

I just did a couple of big stitches where I had the fabric pinched to hold the gathers and pieces all together. Then I repeated the entire process with a coordinating fabric...

I made the complimentary rosette slightly smaller than the original (just cut shorter strips). Then hot glue the rosettes in a cluster onto a pin, and cover your glue with a piece of fabric backing for a finished look.

I used a pieces of chip board, cut down to size, to create a backing for the pin. By punching two small holes, I slipped the pin through and attached to the backing. I also punched two more holes to tie a bow through, then stamped the front with HAPPY BIRTHDAY and the back with my "HANDMADE BY" stamps (both from Paper Source). And, voila! The pin is complete, perfectly packaged and doubles as a gift and birthday card all in one! It probably took me about 20 minutes total to create this Birthday Corsage...these also make great package toppers or can be attached to a headbands or handbags for a different look. So versatile and easy!