How to sew a fabric rose (free sewing tutorial)

Learn how to create a beautiful fabric rose with this easy-to-follow sewing tutorial! This step-by-step guide will walk you through the process of creating a stunning rose that you can use to embellish clothing, accessories, or home decor. They look really cute on a hairclip!

A red and yellow fabric rose with text overlay "How to sew a fabric rose"

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I love to sew tutus (my favourite is this Angelina Ballerina one for my little girl). Whenever I make a tutu, there’s always a narrow piece of fabric leftover. Thanks to the wonderful cutting skills of my local fabric shop, it’s usually cut on an angle, something like this:

An uneven strip of red glitter organza fabric

Normally, this would be really annoying, but this is actually perfect for rose-making! I’ve used organza, and other lightweight fabrics. I haven’t tried it with anything heavier.

Here’s my tutorial for how to sew a fabric rose:

Supplies

  • 3-inch (8cm) strip of organza or other lightweight fabric
  • Matching thread
  • Small piece of green felt for leaves
  • Small felt circle
  • Sewing machine
  • Hand sewing needle
  • Hair clip (optional)
  • Hot glue gun and glue

Instructions

Step 1: Cut a fabric strip. If you don’t have a wonky leftover scrap of fabric like me, cut a fabric strip on an angle going from around 3 inches (8cm) at one selvedge to 1.5 inches (3-4cm) at the other.

Step 2: Adjust your sewing machine settings. I set my stitch length to the longest possible (which is 5 on my Janome MC3500) and increase the tension to maximum (which is 9 for me).

Close up of sewing machine settings

This will gather the fabric for me as I sew – yep, I’m a lazy crafter and always look for the quickest way to do anything!

Step 3: Fold the fabric in half lengthwise with wrong sides together and sew along the edge of the fabric with a 3/8 inch (1cm seam allowance).

Here you can see the fabric gathering as it goes behind the needle. (The rose practically creates itself!). Since one edge will be slightly longer than the other, you’ll need to stretch one side a little. The fabric will bunch and twist a bit, but this helps create the appearance of petals.

strip of organza fabric being gathered on a sewing machine

(I picked the worst fabric to photograph – pale yellow fairy organza – sorry!)

The fabric will end up looking like this:

Gathered organza fabric on a cutting mat

Step 4: Roll the fabric into a rose. Starting at the shortest end, slowly fold and wind it around, hand-stitching it in place at the back every now and then:

Organza fabric being rolled into a fabric flower

Keep wrapping and stitching…

Organza fabric gathered and rolled into a fabric rose

Until you have a whole rose. For the last edge, I fold it under and taper it to the centre.

The back of a fabric rose made from organza

Step 5 (optional): To make it into a hairclip, I hot-glued two leaves (cut out of felt) and a felt circle onto the back, and then hot-glued a hairclip on the back.

Yellow fabric rose on a cutting mat with a hair clip, two felt leaves and a felt circle

And there we have a beautiful organza rose:

Close up of a yellow fabric rose made from organza

Now you know how to sew a fabric rose (and use up those annoying uneven fabric scraps). If you make one, I’d love to see your version!

More sewing inspiration:

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Narelle, Threadistry Chief Creator

I'm Narelle and I believe sewing is most rewarding when you learn by sewing what you love. I'm a Burda-certified sewing instructor and love sharing sewing tips, tricks and tutorials.