How to make pretty turquoise fabric roses with an inexpensive drop cloth and sew a simple envelope style pillow cover embellished with the rosettes. This beautiful feminine handmade rosette pillow looks so pretty propped on a bed or displayed on a bedroom window seat.

How To Make DIY Fabric Rosettes With A Drop Cloth

When I posted our master bedroom window seat makeover recently, several readers asked if I made the turquoise rosette pillow propped on the bench. So today I'm sharing instructions on how to make the fabric roses as well as how to sew a simple envelope-style pillow cover.

This is a project you may want to plan on doing over the span of several days or weeks. This is the perfect craft to do while watching your favorite Netflix series so set up a comfortable workspace near the television.

What You'll Need To Make Fabric Rosettes

This post contains affiliate links so you can see what products I used or recommend for this project. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from any qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!

Supply List

Drop Cloth or Cotton/Linen Fabric
Sewing Ruler
Cutting Mat
Rotary Cutter
Turquoise Multi-Surface or Fabric Paint
Misting Water Bottle
6-inch Foam Paint Roller
Hot Glue Gun and Clear Glue Sticks
16-inch Pillow Cover (optional)
16-inch Pillow Form

If sewing isn't your forte, you could use a readymade canvas pillow cover (see link in the supply list above) to attach the fabric rosettes onto. Otherwise, you can sew a simple envelope-style pillow cover with the drop cloth fabric by following the step-by-step tutorial in my envelope pillow tutorial post.

How To Make Fabric Roses

I'm not going to lie, making the rosettes is time-consuming, hence the reason I mentioned earlier to plan this craft around your favorite television viewing schedule.

Step 1 - Paint Drop Cloth Fabric

This step is optional and you can skip it if you would like the rosettes to be in the neutral drop cloth color OR if you are using a color or patterned fabric.

What Not To Do

You may have noticed in the photo above that I cut the strips of fabric before painting them. Don't do that! It is much easier if you paint the fabric first.

You'll want to lightly dampen the fabric as you work with a misting spray bottle to help the paint move easier. With either multi-surface or fabric paint and a foam roller, paint the drop cloth fabric. You may need more than one coat of paint, depending on the color you choose.

Step 2 - Cut Fabric Strips

You need the drop cloth or piece of fabric to be no smaller than 18" x 144" to make enough rosettes for a 16-inch pillow cover. With a cutting mat, sewing ruler, and a rotary cutter, cut the fabric into 2-inch wide strips.

Step 3 - Making Rosettes

I strongly urge you to have a small bowl of water nearby because there will be some hot glue mishaps in the making of this pillow!

1. Fold the 2-inch strips in half lengthwise and in half again. Either press them with an iron or add a dab of hot glue every so often to hold them in place.
2. Roll the strip tightly until it is 1/2-inch thick and add a dab of hot glue to hold in place.
3. Twist the fabric while wrapping it around the rolled fabric a couple of times and add a dab of glue to hold it in place.
4. Continue twisting and wrapping the fabric strip in a coil-like fashion, dabbing hot glue every now and again to hold it in place. It may take a couple of practice runs before you get a rhythm going.
5. Keep twisting and wrapping until the rose is approximately 2-inches in size (5-6 rotations).
6. Fold the strip to the underside of the rosette and secure it with a generous dab of hot glue.
7. Cut the strip of fabric with sharp scissors.
8. Repeat these steps until you have enough rosettes to cover the front of your pillow (approximately 75 rosettes for a 16-inch pillow form).

For a tutorial on how to make mini fabric rosettes see my ticking stripe heart wreath post.

Step 4 - Attach Rosettes To Pillow Cover

Once you have all 75 rosettes finished, we can begin attaching them to the pillow cover as follows:

1. Find the center point of the front of your pillow cover and mark it with a pencil.
2. Attach a rosette with a few dabs of hot glue.
3. Work your way up and down from the center rosette to create the first vertical row.
4. You may end up with a small gap at the top and bottom and that's fine.
5. Repeat the previous step to the left of the first row.
6. Then repeat it again to the right of the first row.
7. Continue the pattern until the entire pillow cover is covered with rosettes.

Insert your pillow form into the cover and you're done!

So what do you think? Would you have the patience to make one of these rosette pillows? If not, here are some readymade options I found that you might like.

Did you notice I only have one rosette pillow on my window seat? 😉

Thanks for stopping by the Interior Frugalista today! I hope you were inspired by this drop cloth rosette pillow idea.

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