I always like to give my mom flowers for mother's day, but flowers cost a lot of money and then don't live very long. So I came up with the idea for long lasting, cheap but beautiful handmade roses from scraps of fabric I had left over from other projects!

Step 1: Materials

For the rose itself you'll need:

Fabric

Needle and thread

Scissors

If you want to make it into a long stemmed rose as shown in the picture, you'll need:

Chopstick

Hot glue

About 10 green buttons, varying sizes are okay

Green paper

Step 2: Cutting and Sewing the Fabric

Cut two strips of fabric, about three inches wide and seven inches long.

One strip at a time, fold the strip in half and pin.

Then, using a loose running stitch, sew one line near the bottom of the strip.

Step 3: Gather Ye Rosebuds

Gather one of the strips together into a very tight bud, gather the second strip into a looser, almost circular bud.

Place the tight bud into the looser one, and sew them together.

Step 4: Making It Into a Long Stemmed Rose

If you want to make the rose have leaves and a stem, read on. If you want to see other things you can do with it, skip to the last step.

Still here? Okay, get out your green paint and paint the chopstick. A green marker will work in a pinch, but doesn't saturate the wood as well.

Set the chopstick aside to dry.

Get out your green buttons and use the hot glue to glue them on top of each other. It's fine if they are varying sizes and shades of green, nature isn't perfect, so this manmade flower shouldn't be either!

When the buttons are dry, hot glue them to the bottom, or slightly to the side of the bottom, of your rose. If you decide to make a dozen of these, consider gluing the buttons on a slightly different place on each rose, so they don't all look exactly alike.

I do recommend making a dozen of these, the effect is spectacular.

Then glue the other end of the buttons to the large and flat end of the chopstick.

Step 5: Add Leaves

Cut out leaves from the green paper. Glue them to the chopstick, folding them a little differently every time so they don't look uniform.

Step 6: Finished Product and Other Ideas

When I was finished, I stuck the rose in my mother's flower box on our balcony, waiting for her to find it. You can make a dozen and tie them together with a ribbon, or do as I did below, and make it into a brooch.

This can be done easily by repeating the gathering step with another fabric, then sewing them together. Put ribbons on the bottom, sew in a button, get creative and have a good mother's day!