How to Make Flower Hair Clips
My six year old daughter Ruby and I have learned how to make these fabulous flower clips together. We really love doing crafty projects together and these have been really fun and fairly easy to make. In the picture below, I really felt like my hair clip took my basic black dress ensemble to the next level. I felt super beautiful and fancy and got lots of compliments on this lovely accessory.
At Jarrod and Francesca’s Wedding
I’m always looking for fun and creative things to do as a stay at home mom with four young children, and I thought, I can do this! Once I got all of the materials, it was easy to just start cranking them out.
Materials
- Fake Flowers: I found mine by clearing out my local thrift stores. Look for the colors that you’d like to play around with and go for a variety of sizes and shapes. I tried not to spend more than a few dollars for each bundle. I have also found some great fake flowers at dollar stores like the Dollar Tree.
Fake Flowers from the Thrift Store
- Hot Glue Gun: You can pick one up at your local dollar store, or get one here.
- Hot Glue Sticks: I ordered a big bag of 100 of them here. You’ll go through them surprisingly quickly! It probably takes about one glue stick to do two flowers. I’ve also found some even cheaper ($6) at Walmart in the craft section.
- Clips: I like using these metal clips, but you could also get some that are shorter or some that have teeth.
- Leather or Jean Fabric: I got some jean fabric for the backing because it was what I found at the thrift store. Mae Belle used soft leather. For my next batch, I’m using some cream colored canvas.
- Melted Marbles, Beads, Buttons, or Jewels: These are for the center. You can go for more of a festive look with the jewels, an eccentric look with the buttons, or a subtle look with the clear melted marbles. You could even use the centers from the fake flowers. There’s a lot of room for creativity here!
- Extras: Mae Belle likes using feathers as accents, and I think this looks really great! I’ve also saved some of the green petals from my fake flower bundles that might look nice. If I get really adventurous, I might use some of the little accent flowers that I’ve found in my flower bundles.
- Paper Cutter: This is much easier than cutting all of the fabric rectangles by hand, but a pair of scissors will work just as well.
- Small Toy: You just need something to use to push down the petals after you put on the hot glue so that you don’t burn your fingers. Whatever you use will get ruined! I used a unifix cube and it worked really well.
- Large Book: You’ll need this to press down the petals after you glue them together. You might want to make a paper bag cover for the book because it may get ruined depending on how sloppy you get.
Directions
- Take Apart the Fake Flowers: This is the least fun and the hardest part of the whole process. First, pull off the heads of the flowers. They should pop right off. (Save the petals for accents if you’d like.) Then, take out the center of the flower. This might take a little wiggling. (Set these aside too.) You can choose to gently peel off any remaining plastic on each layer, or leave it on to make the petals a little stiffer. I personally like to peel off all of the plastic so that the petals will lie flat. *Some fake flowers had fake water droplets. Some of them peeled off easily, but with others it started to rip the fabric, so I left them on.
Taking Apart the Artificial Flowers
- Sort and Arrange the Flowers: I like keeping all of the original flowers stacked together and then put all of the same colored flowers into large ziploc bags. When I’m ready to get to work, I like to spread all of my flower options out on the table, and then when I’m done, everything goes back into the plastic bags.
- Pre-Cut Fabric: Using your jean, soft leather, or canvas, cut 2½” x 2″ rectangles (2 per flower clip). I like using my paper cutter for this, but you could just use scissors too.
- Create a Design: There are lots of different ways to go about this. I like using about 3-5 flower petals, and I like to create a color theme with similarly based or complementary colors. But you could use only one color and stack lots of flower petals for a ruffled and elegant look as well. This is the part that is really fun! Get creative! I like to lay out my entire design before I start gluing.
Flower Design
- Bottoms Up: Start with the bottom flower and hot glue the back of it to the piece of fabric. Always start with as little hot glue as you can. It dries quickly and too much will ruin the look of the flower.
Gluing the Bottom Layer
- Press It Down: After you attach the petal to the fabric, you’ll want to press it down with something. This is why I suggested gathering a small toy. I used a unifix cube because it’s what was close by, and it worked great.
Pressing Down the Glue with a Unifix Cube
- Layer all Petals: Next, you’ll center your next petal on top of the first. Each petal has a circle in the middle that you can line up. Mae Belle told me that she likes to run a piece of wire inbetween all of the holes to keep all of the petals centered and together. I tried this method and it just didn’t work for me, but it might be something that you want to try.
Layering the Petals
- Press Under a Book: I sometimes do this after every new petal that I put on depending on how much it’s sticking up, but you’ll at least need to do this once at the end. Whatever book you use, the cover will probably get covered with hot glue. So either make sure it’s a junky book or cover it with an old paper bag or something.
- Attach the Clip: This part is a little tricky. You want to position the clip so that the handle part is facing up. (When you position the clip this way, it will easily go in and out of your hair. If you put it the other way, it will get stuck and rip out a bunch of hair when you try to take it out, and that’s no fun.) Open the clip and set it against the piece of fabric, outline the fabric on the edges and underneath where the clip will go in the center with hot glue, set the clip on the hot glue (Keep it open!), and then quickly put another piece of fabric on top. Press down firmly until it dries.
Keep the Clip Open as You Put on the Hot Glue
Place the Second Piece of Fabric on Top
- Center Piece: Try playing around with some jewels, beads, or melted marbles until you get the look you are going for. It just takes a dot of glue to hold it down. You could do this part before putting the clip on, but it’s hard to press it down flat once the jewel is on.
- Finishing Touches: Looking from the top down, make sure all parts of the petals are securely attached. Add any more dots of hot glue as needed. Add any feathers or other special accents that you’d like.
Finished Product
So fun!