First off, WOW! I’m totally overwhelmed by the great comments and questions on my giveaway post! I’m going to compile everyone’s questions into a new massive FAQ and it’s seriously been very helpful! So thanks! There’s still time to enter too. I’ll close comments and pick a winner around lunchtime on Sunday (noon EST).

I thought I’d write up a tutorial on how to make a lacy flower pin, since I haven’t seen one posted yet. I can’t take credit for this idea though. I saw it used on fabric in a craft magazine (though I can’t recall which magazine it was in). All I did was apply the technique to lace! You can use this to make fabric flowers too — but you should use thinner fabric if you do.

The first step is to go to your local thrift shop and find a huge gallon ziplock bag of lace and trim for $1.

Got it? Good. You’ll also need thread and a needle (hand-sewing thread works the best). You’ll probably want to use thread that actually matches the lace you’re using. And you’ll need a pinback or safety pin and a bit of felt (I’m using some heavy sew-in interfacing here because I had a few scraps left from a bag project). If you want to embellish it with buttons or beads or whatever, you’ll need that too of course!

The first thing is to cut your lace so that you can visually divide it by five. Most lace that I’ve used for this has a “bumpy” side and a flat side. I count ten “bumps” and leave half a “bump” on each side to sew them together (does this make sense?). If you want to just mark your lace with a little fabric pen or something, that would work too. Just make sure you can easily divide it by five (or however many petals you want).

Start at the top of the lace (the bumpy side) and make a long running stitch down. You’ll be stitching U shapes. When you get to the top of the U, bring the needle around to the other side of the lace so it can pull the lace (see the picture because I obviously can’t explain this).

Keep going till you have made five U shapes and then start pulling the thread to gather the lace.

Eventually you’ll have something like this:

Use your needle and thread in the back of the flower to shape it nicely. You just have to play with it, adding a stitch here and there and seeing how the front is shaping up. You’ll want to push and pull on the petals with your fingers to get it nicely shaped too.

Sew your button on (if you want a button in the center).

Now is the time to embellish it with other lace, trims, ribbons, whatever. Just use your imagination and stitch them on the back of the pin.

Finally, sew a pinback onto a bit of felt and attach it to the back. Or just stab it with a safety pin. Honestly, I’ve done both!

Okay, so now that you’ve made one, you can just start gathering the lace while you’re sewing the U’s. The wider you make your U’s the bigger the petals will be:

Sit back and marvel at your creations. I put these on my hats and I’ve used them to dress up bags. They would make super cute headbands. I’m not really a broach kind of girl, but I’m sure you can make beautiful broaches with them too!

Please let me know if something wasn’t clear! And if you make any, leave a link to a photo for me to see!