Inside: A fabric flower pattern and a step-by-step tutorial to make poppy seed head decorations.

My day starts with a long walk and then coffee!

The walks vary from country park hikes to urban rambles. In spring, wild poppies line the paths on both treks. They are one of my favourite flowers, and at the end of the summer, I love to pick the dried poppy seed heads and put them in a vase for decoration.

Many of my crafts involve mimicking nature with paper and fabric. For example, I made fabric mushrooms, map roses, denim flowers, velvet figs and felt succulent gardens.

This time I’ve created a pattern to make fabric flower poppy seed pods.

Fabric Poppy Seed Heads

I have designed a straightforward fabric flower pattern with only one shape. Make poppy seed heads in different sizes by shrinking or enlarging the pattern.

I warn you, it’s addictive, and I made loads of these poppy pods in an assortment of fabrics and colours.

This hand-sewn craft uses a simple blanket stitch and running stitch. Each poppy head takes about 20 minutes to make.

Make them whilst watching a box set on the telly; it’s a good couch craft.

Making these poppy seed pods is a fun way to use fabric scraps. You can make them in velvet, denim, linen and colourful pieces of cotton.

Fabrics that fray work best, but the pattern can be tweaked to work with non-fraying materials such as felt.

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The Fabric Pattern & Guide

What you need to make one poppy seed pod

• A scrap of fabric about 12″ (30cm) by 6″ (15 cm)
• Needle and thread in a similar colour to the fabric
• A small amount of fiberfill
• Double-sided sticky tape
• Fabric glue
• Floral wire
• Bulldog clip

The fabric flower pattern

Download the template below here.

Step 1: Download and print out the pattern and then cut out the template shape. Draw around the shape six times on the fabric.

Step 2: Cut out the fabric shapes to have six identical pieces.

Step 3: Pin two of the fabric shapes together. Stitch them along one long side using a simple blanket stitch. Start the stitching about 3mm from the pointed tip and then sew along the edge stopping about 1cm from the top.

The segments will be well-defined using a blanket stitch, just like they are with real poppy seed pods.

Step 4: Keep sewing the shapes until all six are together.

Step 5: Sew up both ends of the shape to form the seed head body. Then stuff it with fiberfill.

Step 6: Use one long running stitch and pull tight to close and gather the top of the poppy pod. (Just like the one I used to make these sweater balls).

Step 7: Pull the woven threads at the top unstitched 1cm of the pods to fray them.

Using fabric like felt that doesn’t fray, just cut small slits in the material to mimic fraying.

Making the Poppy Pod Stem

Step 8: Cut a strip of fabric about 30cm long and 5mm wide. ( You can use several shorter strips to make the length).

Step 9: Cover the floral wire in double side sticky tape and wrap the strip of fabric around it.

Step 10: Finish off the poppy by sticky the stem in the bottom of the seed head. Use fabric glue to hold it in place.

More Fabric Poppy Pods

As I said at the beginning, this is an addictive craft. I made loads of these poppy seed heads in fabric scraps, including repurposed old jeans.

The velvet-crafted ones were made from sofa swatches. I even made some in tartan to go with my tartan feathers.

Unlike real poppy seed heads, you can make these fabric ones in various colours and even use patterned fabric scraps.

I do think the Tartan poppies look a bit like Scottish thistles.

They make lovely handmade gifts for friends. I have given my friends and family vases of these fabric flowers in their favourite colours. Choose colours that will match your decor.

If you can make the poppy seed heads, you’ll have no trouble creating beautiful velvet pomegranates. They follow a very similar process, with just a few tweaks and the added detail of seed beads for the seeds.

There is a free fabric pattern for DIY Chrysanthemum flowers and one here for some whimsical hand sewn fabric daisies.

If you liked this post, you should check out my fabric thistles, denim pom pom flowers and repurposed fabric flowers.

And these fun bleached denim snake plants.

For more whimsical scrap fabric projects, check out these DIY jellyfish.

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