How to Make a Fabric Yo-Yo Flower

I am excited to share with you how to make a fabric yo-yo flower. I have seen these made a couple of different ways but this way works the best for me.  They are super simple to make and the results are always nice. It would be really hard to mess these up.  Yo-yo's or yo-yo flowers are used to embellish lots of different things from fashion accessories to quilts. I've tried them on all different kinds of fabrics and they always come cute. They will have a slightly different look depending on what material you use and you can make them in different sizes, too.  Another good thing about these is you can make several in no time.  It takes me about 10 minutes or so to make one.  Using a sewing machine would be even better but if you don't have a machine that's okay. Either way, they are really quick and easy to do.  Let's get started.

• Fabric
• Scissors
  
• Needle
• Thread
• Embellishment

First cut a strip of material about 3 inches wide by 1.5 long. After you have your strip cut out you will need to fold the strip long ways with right side of material out. Your strip will then measure 1.50 in. by 1.5 ft long. Depending on how big or small you want your yo-yo to be, you can tweak the measurement of the width of the fabric a little bit. The wider it is the bigger the yo-yo will be.

TIP: You don't have to fold the fabric. Just make sure you are using a fabric that will not fray at the edges. Do everything according to the directions but don't fold. If you use a bit longer piece of fabric and then gather it, you'll get a very ruffled looking flower. These are really cute, too!

Now take a needle and thread and make a stitch along the open edge lengthwise. Just one simple stitch is all you need to do. It doesn't even have to be perfect. Just be sure that you do not have a whole lot of length between the stitches or your stitches aren't too long and try to have them somewhat evenly spaced.

When finished, take the needle and thread left over and pull up while pushing down the material making it gather into sort of a ruffle.. scrunching it down.

Now that it is all gathered and tight, sew the ends together starting from the gathered end working up toward the edge and then back along the edge to the middle. This forms your ruffled round yo-yo. Knot it and cut the thread and wallah!! You have a yo-yo!

Your yo-yo is done and now all you have to do is add your embellishment to the center. Use whatever you want for your embellishment. Here are some ideas:

• Buttons
• Gems
• Charms
• Sequins
• Beads

You could also layer smaller yo-yo's on top or embellish with a bow and then a little rhinestone.

That's all there is to making a yo-yo or yo-yo flower! I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial and I have inspired you. Remember, these are super simple to make. Even if you think you aren't the "crafty" type, you may be amazed at how nice these turn out.  It's extremely hard to mess these up.. I encourage you to give it a try! Experiment with different fabrics and different embellishments. You will have so much fun!