How to Sew a Wearable Statement Flower from Fabric

August 19, 2026 Terrance Williams

Close-up of a smiling person wearing a colorful floral Ankara maxi dress with thin straps and an oversized matching fabric flower tied at the shoulder. — The statement flower takes center stage. Made from the same vibrant Ankara fabric as the dress, the oversized flower adds a bold, dimensional finishing touch.

Farm Rio is one of my favorite brands! I love their use of print and color and their advocacy for sustainability. I always check out the latest offerings to get inspired in my own designs and clothing. And while I absolutely love the brand and the clothing, the price point is a bit high for me. But luckily, I have the ability to sew and make my own clothes! While browsing Pinterest and the Farm Rio website, I found this dress and immediately fell in love!

Model wearing a colorful Farm Rio maxi dress with a flowing silhouette, bold floral and abstract prints in orange, purple, yellow, and pink, and oversized floral shoulder details. — A vibrant Farm Rio maxi dress featuring playful florals, bold colors, and statement shoulder flowers.

I knew that I could easily make a similar dress in my own style, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to make the floral appliqués at the shoulder.

Close-up of the Farm Rio dress shoulder, showing an oversized multicolored fabric flower, gathered neckline, colorful ties, and beaded tassel detail. — A close-up look at the dress’s statement floral shoulder detail and colorful beaded tassel.

What I believe is that where there is a will, there is a way, and where there is a BERNINA, anything is possible! I did a little bit of research and, through trial and error, created the perfect tutorial on how to sew a fabric flower! The fabric that I’m using is from African Zesty Fabrics, a Texas-based business that sells the most stunning cotton Ankara fabric. I thought this floral print would be absolutely perfect to go with this dress. It’s bold and bright and colorful, and the cotton is so soft and comfortable. I love working with it because I can create so many different clothing items and accessories with the Ankara cotton, anything from shirts to wide-leg pants to dresses. It’s such a versatile fabric!

Bold Ankara fabric featuring a dense hand-drawn floral print with pink, yellow, orange, red, white, and green flowers and foliage against a black background. — A vibrant floral Ankara print bursting with colorful flowers and leafy botanicals in bold shades of pink, yellow, orange, red, and green.

Materials To Sew A Fabric Appliqué Flower

Fabric of choice (cotton, linen, viscose challis preferred)
SF 101 interfacing
Petal Line Drawing Shape
Beads (optional)

Sewing a fabric flower was a lot easier than I thought, and it doesn’t take that much material! Depending on the size you want to make, these would make the perfect scrap buster project as they don’t use a lot of fabric and only take a little interfacing to make them sturdy and give them shape. For the shape of the petals, you can draft your own petal shape, or you can easily find petal line drawing shapes on the internet. I just searched Google and found a petal shape that I liked. I enlarged it to get the size of the petal that I wanted because I wanted mine a little bigger, so I enlarged the file, and then I printed it and cut it out.

Paper sewing pattern pieces for large flower petals laid out and partially cut on a gridded cutting mat — The beginning of the process—cutting out the large petal pattern pieces before bringing the fabric flower to life.

One thing I did learn during the trial and error was to extend the bottom edge of the petal so you have enough to fold over at a later step of the instructions. This is what my final petal piece ended up looking like.

Cut paper pattern template shaped like a large rounded flower petal resting on a blue gridded cutting mat. — A closer look at the large petal template, cut and ready to be transferred onto fabric.

For the string or tie, you can either make a long, skinny tie from the matching fabric or you can use string. I preferred to make a matching tie from the fabric. If you want to add beads like in the Farm Rio dress, you can, but its completely optional!

Instructions To Sew A Fabric Applique Flower

Step 1: Cut Out Your Petal Shape

You only need to cut out one petal shape

Step 2: Cut Your Petals Out of the Fabric

You’ll want 10 petals total to make the front and the back. I find it easiest to fold the fabric right sides together and then cut out five sets of two petals.

Large paper flower petal pattern piece placed on colorful floral Ankara fabric with pink, yellow, orange, red, white, and green flowers on a black background. — Using the large petal template to cut the colorful Ankara fabric and begin creating the fabric flower.

Step 3: Repeat the Same Process for the Interfacing

You’ll want to cut 10 pieces of interfacing to go on each petal piece

Step 4: Apply the Interfacing

With your iron, apply the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric

Two large rounded flower petals cut from colorful floral Ankara fabric featuring red, pink, yellow, orange, white, and green botanical motifs on a black background. — The petals are cut! Each piece of the Ankara print creates a completely unique mix of colorful flowers and foliage.

Step 5: Sew the Edge of the Petal

With right sides together, sew around the edge of the petal almost all the way around, leaving the bottom edge open

Two layers of floral Ankara fabric sewn together in a large rounded petal shape with black stitching around the curved edges. — Stitching the Ankara fabric pieces together to transform the flat fabric into a dimensional flower petal.

Step 6: Clip Around the Edges

Sewn floral Ankara fabric petal shown wrong side out with small clips cut into the curved seam allowance before turning the petal right side out. — Clipping along the curved seam allowance helps the petal turn smoothly and creates a cleaner, more rounded finished shape.

Step 7: Turn Right Sides Out on All the Petals

Colorful floral Ankara fabric petals freshly pressed and arranged on a gray pressing mat beneath an iron, ready to be shaped and assembled into a fabric flower. — Freshly pressed and ready for the next step! Pressing each petal gives it a smooth, polished shape before the flower comes together.

Step 8: Press

Press each petal to give it a smooth shape.

Step 9: Straight Stitch to Close the Petal

Fold raw edges of the bottom petal in and do a straight stitch to close the petal. Press.

Close-up of a colorful floral Ankara fabric petal being pressed with a small iron on a gray pressing mat during the flower-making process. — A quick press gives each Ankara fabric petal a smooth, crisp finish before shaping and assembling the flower.

Step 10: Place Your Tie or String at the Bottom of the Petal

Place your tie or string piece at the bottom of the petal and fold it up to encase the tie or string.

Oversized five-petal fabric flower handmade from vibrant floral Ankara fabric with pink, yellow, orange, red, white, and green botanical motifs on a black background. — Petal by petal, it all comes together. A bold oversized flower made from vibrant Ankara fabric and finished with coordinating fabric ties.

Step 11: Sew a Straight Stitch

Sew a straight stitch, careful not to sew over the tie

Step 12: Repeat

Place the next petal on the tie and repeat the process.

Five large colorful floral Ankara fabric petals arranged and gathered together in a flower shape, with a coordinating fabric tie extending from the center. — It’s finally starting to look like a flower! The finished Ankara petals are gathered together to create a bold, oversized statement piece.

Step 13: Shape the Flower

Finally, pull the tie or string until the flower takes shape

Step 14: Tie off the Bottom

Tie off the bottom of the tie or add your optional beads, and you’re done!

Smiling person wearing a colorful floral Ankara maxi dress with an oversized matching fabric flower at the neckline, photographed outdoors in a grassy field. — Bold florals, vibrant color, and a handmade statement flower bring this Ankara maxi dress to life.

Sewing the Dress

For the rest of the dress, I actually hacked one of my favorite sewing patterns, Butterick 6566. This pattern is originally a jumpsuit, but I was able to hack it into a dress with pockets! All I did was extend the top portion of the jumpsuit pattern down to make the dress. So instead of cutting out the pants portion of the pattern, I omitted those pieces altogether and just worked with the top front and back pieces. It’s actually a very simple hack as long as you know your height and how short or long you want the dress to be. The pockets are also optional, but I love a dress with pockets, so I added them about 18 inches down from the top of the dress. I then followed the pattern instructions as I normally would to make the top of the jumpsuit, but skipped over the parts of the instructions that included the pants. I used my BERNINA L 890 on the inside of the dress, and I used my BERNINA 790 PRO to sew it all together. I really like the way the serged and pressed seams look on the inside of the dress. For the bottom of the dress, I decided to do a gather at the bottom to give it a little more flair and to make it more my own!

And just like that, I have a finished dress and a finished appliqué flower! This pattern has definitely been my go-to summer pattern! It’s super quick and easy and only a few pattern pieces! I love the finishing details and absolutely love how the flower turned out! I’ll definitely be using this tutorial for other projects!