First is Fabric prep. Round up two pieces of contrasting fabric that are perfectly square. Size doesn't matter, but for this flower, I used 7" square pieces. One fabric will be the flower, the other will be the contrasting fabric that just peeks through when you are done. My flower is going to be the polka-dot fabric.
Sew them right sides together, leaving a 2" opening to turn the fabric.
Clip the corners and turn, using a chopstick or something to make the corners nice and pointy. Blind-stitch the opening closed. Give it a good ironing.
Now, lay your square flower fabric side down. You should be looking at the contrast fabric. Fold up each corner 1.5".
Do this on all 4 corners and iron them flat. Make sure they as perfect 90 degree angles to each side as possible- it will totally help out later!
Now bring up each side to meet the points of your corners. Pin them to hold them in place until your next step.
After all 4 sides are done, it will look like this. Give it a good ironing, with lots of steam.
When all four corners are in the center, stitch them together. You don't want anything popping out of place while you make petals!
To make the petals, insert your needle in the center of each side, where the folded fabric meets.
Bring your needle to the adjacent side of the shared corner. Pull your thread tight, and scootch your fabric to where it needs to be to look like the petal; I usually have to pull a bit towards the corner to make it look right. Make a few more stitches to keep it where you want it.
Knot off your thread and you should have something like the picture below. Then give it a good ironing, and move on to your next petal, and so on.
There is a small petal in between each corner that will appear as you go; make sure it stays under the big corner petals. And you will end up with this:
Which can be used to embellish practically anything! If you stitch down those small middle petals, it can even go through the wash on a piece of clothing.
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