Awesome Folded Fabric Flowers--Japanese Style

I like fabric.  I hoard fabric.  It's a little crazy the size of fabric scraps that I can't bear to part with.  Seriously, who keeps one inch strips of fabric?  (They were just too pretty to throw away...  And actually, I came up with a great way to use them.  I'll write a post about it later.)  

If you, too, are addicted to fabric to the point that you don't throw away even little tiny scraps, DO NOT READ THIS POST!  It will only make it worse.

So, what can you do with this much fabric? 

How about make a sweet little Kanzashi flower?  The blue flower below took only six one-inch squares of fabric.  

No fabric scrap is safe.

I got a book from the library called Kanzashi in Bloom by Diane Gilleand (the blogger behind CraftyPod). Kanzashi are really pretty easy to make; the two flowers pictured above are my first two attempts.  (The blue one wasn't finished, but I'll show you the completed project later.)  I turned the white one into a hair clip, and when Boo saw it, she said, "White!  Pink!  Hair!"  (I love how she says each word as its own sentence.)

Kanzashi in Bloom teaches how to make three styles of petals and gives lots of ideas for what to do with your creations (hair clips, belt buckles, flower arrangements, rings, earrings, necklaces, and more).

You could also just google "kanzashi tutorials."  (By the way, some of these tutorials tell you to starch you fabric, but I don't think it's necessary--I didn't use starch for either of these flowers.)

Happy flower-making!