Fabric Flower Pins for Mothers Day

I wanted to hold an Activity Day for the girls to do something special for their moms. We normally start our activities off with a short devotional, which my co-leader was in charge of this time around. She chose to share an excerpt from Elder M. Russell Ballard’s April 2010 Conference Talk Mothers & Daughters. The message was perfect for the girls:

“Look to your mother. Learn from her strengths, her courage, and her faithfulness. Listen to her. She may not be a whiz at texting; she may not even have a Facebook page. But when it comes to matters of the heart and the things of the Lord, she has a wealth of knowledge.”

Then, we all took turns saying something that we loved about our mothers.

For our activity, we made these fun Flower Pins for mom. They are super easy and very inexpensive to make.

Materials:

• Long, narrow piece of fabric, approx. 1.75” X 35” (Cotton fabric is best)
• Craft Thread
• Large Needle
• Felt
• Large Bar Pin
• Glue Gun
• Buttons

Note: I brought a ¼ of a yard of a few different fabrics so the girls had some variety to choose from. Then, I TORE strips approximately 1 ¾ inch in length, so that the fabric had a natural fray to it.
Instructions:

1. Thread your needle with the craft thread, tying a knot at the end. Begin a running stitch about a ¼” into the length of your fabric strip. Continue stitching the entire length of your fabric, ultimately creating a gather.

2. Twirl the fabric and manipulate the gather to create a flower shape. Use the needle and thread to sew through all of the layers so that the flower shape stays put. When you achieve your desired look, tie the craft thread into a tight knot on the back and cut the excess craft thread.

3. Hot glue a button (or two) on the center of the flower. (you can also sew the button onto the center, but I found that it was difficult for the girls to do, given our short time)

4. On the back, hot glue a small piece of felt. This will cover up the raw edges and act as a stabilizer for the bar pin. Hot glue the bar pin the felt.

This project was very easy for some of the girls and more difficult for others. It really depended on their exposure to basic sewing. However, each of the girls made beautiful flowers. It was nice having two leaders. I kept the more advanced girls going, while my co-leader stayed and helped the girls that were having more difficulties.

I brought some paper and envelopes so the girls could write letters of appreciation to their mothers. It was a nice activity that gave the girls who finished early something to do.

The girls had a great time with this project and were amazed that they could create this cute flower so easily. We did it in an hour with nine girls. If I had to do it again, I would allow for an extra 15 minutes so they could help with clean-up!