No Sew T-Shirt Scarf With a Fabric Flower

If ever you look on Pinterest you are bound to see a million different blogs with the same tutorial for a t-shirt scarf.  You'll also find a million different tutorials for fabric flowers.  I couldn't help but give into curiosity and I finally made a scarf and added a little flower while I was at it.  

Would you like to make one of your own?  Here is how I made mine.  

To get started you'll need: 
an XL or larger t-shirt (I find 100% cotton works best)
Scissors (fabric scissors if you have them)
9" (or thereabouts) plate or something circular to trace
fabric glue (I used Aleene's Flexible, Stretchable Fabric Glue).  

I followed a simple tutorial from Christy's Cuties to make my scarf.  I wish I would have taken pictures of the process to make it easier to understand, but Christy's Cuties has great pictures for you to follow if you need.  

First I cut my shirt up the side seams so the front and back were separate pieces.  I was using a V neck shirt (not ideal) and I didn't get as many circles from the front as I did from the back. I traced a paper plate on my shirt being careful to maximize how many circles I could cut.  I wasn't exact about it and that is saying a lot for me.  I've noticed with crafting I need to give up being so exact with everything.  It's okay to let loose on this project a little.  It's very forgiving.  I only had an 8 1/2" plate to trace (*gasp*) and I was able to get 6 circles from my shirt.  

Next I cut each circle into spirals.  I just eyeballed it and I made sure to not cut each spiral the same because I wanted different lengths and widths of pieces (I varied my strips between 1"-2").  I like the dimension it gave my scarf.  If you make your strips skinnier they will be longer and if you make them fatter they will be shorter.  I gave a quick tug on my strips so they'd curl up a bit.

After I had all of my spirals made I draped them over my shoulders like a scarf and tied a short piece of t-shirt around to join everything together.  Just make sure you can easily get the scarf over your head to put it on and take it off.  

As a side note, because of the type of shirt I used I was only able to get 6 circles from my t-shirt.  I wished I could have had one or two more circles, but it wasn't the end of the world.  If you can find a shirt that will allow 8 circles your scarf will turn out more full than mine (and I'll be jealous).  

Next I made a little fabric flower out of leftover t-shirt scraps and glued it onto the piece I used to tie everything together.  I got my inspiration for the fabric flower at The Renegade Seamstress.  I mostly followed the directions, but I added a second layer.   Once again, I really should have taken pictures.  

You can make your flower any size you want to.  I just eyeballed a circle (wow!  I am really loosening up these days!) and it came out to be about 1 3/4" in diameter.  I used 15 circles for my flower.  I glued 2 circles together to be the base.  In hindsight, I think a piece of felt may have been a better choice, but this worked pretty well, too.  I used 6 circles for the bottom layer of petals and 6 more circles for the top layer and 1 circle for the middle.  

To make a petal, fold one circle in half and then fold it in thirds to make a cone shape petal.  A dot of glue will hold the petals together.  Then glue the tip in the center of your base and repeat until you have 6 petals on the bottom layer.  Then glue 6 more petals on top of the bottom layer making sure to stagger the petals to fill in gaps.  

Instead of a button I just made another petal and glued it in the middle.  

Once your flower is made and a little bit dried you can glue it onto your scarf if you'd like or you could attach it to a clip so the flower is removable from your scarf.  These flowers would also be cute as a hair clip or on a headband.  

There is certainly room to be creative with this project.  You could use more than one color of shirt to give it even more dimension.  You can make it full or skinny; long or short.  You can make many different sizes and types of flowers to attach or not attach a flower at all.  Just do what you like and enjoy your free, new scarf!  This is a great beginner project and a good one for kids to get in on the fun.  Plus, this project came together in 30 minutes and that was with interruptions from the little person that lives in my house.  

I hope you enjoy your scarf as much as I have enjoyed mine.  
Happy Crafting!