How to Make a Fabric Broach (Christmas Flower)

Molly at Mollychicken gave an easy, fun tutorial on making fabric broaches. That tutorial is complete and easy to read, with great pictures. It gave me an idea for making a broach that I could wear with black and red colors.

Naturally, Christmas comes to mind with the reds and greens traditionally used for the season. I had lots of scrap fabric on hand, so the only fabric I purchased was 1/4 yd. of tartan plaid flannel. Total cost of the project was under $2.00, including the plaid fabric.

Molly says to use hessian backcloth for the broach. Not having any hessian fabric on hand, I resurrected an old piece of needlepoint backing for the broach base. It worked just fine.

I did not pull through the fabric strips, but instead, sewed them onto the pencilled-in concentric circles. Instead of using felt to cover up the stitching on the back, I recycled a plaid collar from a vest previously scavengered for fabric and trimmings. A circle of the plaid fabric was cut out to fit the back, then a clasp was sewn onto the circle, and the completed back was hot glued onto the backing. A more finished plaid backing was the result.

The other finishing step was cutting the ends of the fabric strips at a slant. This was done haphazardly with scissors, but pinking shears could also be used to make the ends look prettily frayed.

I also researched this site for information about making rugs with rag strips. It was a good read and gave me some more ideas about out how to make the Christmas flower broach.

Here is a picture of the back and the front of the broach, using red, green and coordinating colors in the fabric scraps:

The project was an hour well spent, and a different type of craft using old methods incorporating rug making and recycling.