Patriotic Bouquet

Hi friends and happy Friday. Here is a quick tutorial on the flag bouquet I mentioned on Facebook and Insta. I know it is close to the Fourth but these will last for years and you can use them for Labor Day and Memorial Day or any day you feel patriotic. You can make one or two or as many as you like.

I first saw this project on one of my favorite blogs. Leslie of My 100 Year Old House. If you haven’t read her blog you should go there now and check it out. I love her decorating ideas as well as her recipes and crafts. You can read her blog here: http://www.my100yearoldhome.com

I first gathered my fabric that I wanted to use to make each individual flag. The flags are meant to look vintage and Leslie actually tore the fabric but I chose to cut mine. You can see that the dimensions are not exactly the same for every stripe but I like that. It makes them look even more vintage.

You will need about a 1/2 yard of medium weight muslin in white.
Fabric with blue and white stars or something that looks patriotic. I got all of this fabric at Walmart. I also bought some of the small rolled fabric pieces but I wound up using only the blue and white stars fabric on the top of the pile.
1/2 yard of red cotton fabric
Thread, needles and scissors. You can use embroidery thread or just regular thick cotton thread and double it.
Tall sticks, I bought some long dowel rods but I decided for a more authentic rustic look I would use stick out of my yard.
Leslie dyed her flags with a little Rit Dye (tan color) to give them a more vintage look. I did not dye my flags.

For the back of the flag cut a piece of the white muslin into 6″x9″ pieces. I suggest cutting all of these at one time so cut as many white pieces as the number of flags that you want to have.

Next cut the red stripes into 3/4″ strips that are 9″ long. Cut 4 times as many of the red strips because you will use 4 on each flag.

Next cut the blue and white star fabric or whichever you decide to use into pieces that measure 3″x4″.

Next cut the ties that you use to wrap the flag around the stick. These will be 1/2″x5″ strips, you will need two per flag.

I think the trick is to get all of the fabric pieces cut out first.

Pin four of the red strips onto the white muslin. I find It is easier to pin the flags before I sew them. You will then sew down the middle of each red strip with the white thread. I just used a regular sewing stitch. You don’t have to make sure they are super straight. I guess you could also glue these down but then you wouldn’t have the white stitches down the middle and I sort of think that gives it character.

Sew one of the blue pieces of fabric around all the edges on the top left side of the flag.

Make a small cut on the left side of each flag between the bottom two red stripes and in the top side of the blue fabric pieces. Be sure not to cut your hand sewn stitches. Insert one muslin strip into each cut.

If you decide to dye the flags this would be the time to do them. Do not leave them in the dye for very long, just about 30 seconds to give them an aged look. Rinse them and lay them flat to dry.

Tie the top and bottom pieces of the muslin around a stick or dowel rods and make your bouquet. I love to use the sticks because you can have a different sizes.

I guess you could use a sewing machine to do these. I actually found the hand stitching very therapeutic. It was a rainy day when I made mine and I sat at the kitchen table working on them and it was very soothing.