Felt Lisianthus
Native to the warm southern US, Mexico, and South America, lisianthus are popular flowers that are known to be fussy growers. So why not make them out of paper or felt instead? Since we have already crafted a crepe paper lisianthus, Krista decided to make some felt lisianthus flowers for our spring collection.
When you’re ready to get started, check out our supplies list below. Then download our template and photo tutorial, which shows how to make full blooms as well as small and large bud stems.
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Lizzy Lisianthus
Krista chose to make these felt lisianthus flowers using two shades of light purple. She also added some yellow-green pastel to both the blooms and buds for a more realistic look. Once assembled, you can spray some Stiffen-Quick to your flowers and then ruffle the petals as they dry to enhance their fluffy shape.
Our final arrangement includes 3 blooms and 5 buds. You can put your flowers all together, or they would look lovely as individual stems in glass bud vases. Of course they’d also look beautiful in a larger, fuller arrangement.
We’d love to see your version and how you arrange your felt lisianthus! So be sure to share photos on Instagram with the hashtag #MadeWithLia. Or post photos to our crafters community page.
Skill level: Intermediate
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How to Make a Felt Lisianthus
- Gather your tools and materials. Then download the template on the right hand side at the top of this post.
- Cut out felt according to template using scissors or a cutting machine with a rotary blade.
- Wrap and glue the pistil piece around the end of a length of green 18-gauge floral wire. Fold out the rounded part on top.
- Glue the end of a short length of 24-gauge floral wire to the yellow strip at one end.
Full tutorial available for members to download on the right hand side at the top of this post.
Explore More
Love this felt lisianthus? Check out all of our felt flowers for more ideas.
Tools
- Cricut Maker or Silhouette Cameo 4 (recommended)
- Detail Scissors
- Low-Temp Hot Glue Gun
- Needle-Nose Pliers/Wire Cutters
Materials
- Lia Griffith’s Wool Blend Felt — Wisteria, Water Lily, Sunshine, Fern, Juniper, and Pistachio
- Floral Wire – 18-Gauge Paper Covered Green and 24-Gauge Paper Covered Green
- Lia Griffith Felt Balls 1cm — Any color (tutorial shows Moss)
- PanPastel® Artist Pastel – Bright Yellow Green 680.5
- Floral Tape — Fern & Moss
- Aleene’s Stiffen-Quick Fabric Stiffening Spray
- Polyester Fiber Fill — Lia Griffith Stuffie Puff
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Discussion
Ask Lia or the community!
11 Comments
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Dorene
March 16, 2023 at 9:43am
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Lia
March 16, 2023 at 9:55am
@Dorene
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Sylvia
March 13, 2023 at 5:41pm
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Lia
March 14, 2023 at 10:02am
@Sylvia
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Sylvia
March 6, 2023 at 7:53pm
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Lia
March 7, 2023 at 9:10am
@Sylvia
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Lia
March 8, 2023 at 12:52pm
@Sylvia
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Sylvia
March 4, 2023 at 1:42pm
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Lia
March 5, 2023 at 7:37pm
@Sylvia
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Dorene
March 3, 2023 at 9:28am
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Lia
March 3, 2023 at 9:41am
@Dorene
Leave a CommentThanks for the great info.
anytime!
Thank you Krista and Lia for the responses, gluing just the middle of the covered edge of the petal first did the trick! The edges laid nice and flat with the base of the petal almost to the side of the wire rather than the centering them on the wire, and as a bonus any ruffles on the covered inner edge adds to the teardrop. Thank you for such a gorgeous pattern, and one that makes me very excited to try more felt flowers!!
Wonderful! So happy to hear.
Oh how wonderful! Best wishes to them!! I bet the flowers were stunning 😉
Thank you for your help in her absence. I tried gluing them a few ways. On the first one (no 12mm ball), after spiraling as best I could with the glue just at the base I tried tacking the covered edges first and then gluing up the visible edge from bottom to top, but the top is 1/2 – 5/8″ open. On the second one, after spiraling I tried first tacking the visible top corner of the petal more closed and then working my way back down the edge toward the base, but I got lumps and had to snip out little triangles to get the edges to lie flat, and even then there’s still a 3/8″ opening at the top. On the third one I angled the petals close to 30 degrees and that time the edges were flat, but now the top of the outer ring is about 1/4″ below the inner petals.
I just tried one of the small green buds to see if I’d have more luck. It’s better, but still not great. I chopped off about a quarter inch from the top of the inside pair after gluing and the bud is more closed at the top but the base spread out like a pinwheel and I ended up making a couple nips at the bottom to get them to lay flatter – at least I can hide that one with the sepal.
Is it a fruitless idea to try cupping the center of felt petals like one would with crepe paper (my thumbs are saying yes…)? I was thinking I could try to make an indent in the center of the wider half for the ball to nest in for the inner two and flip them skinny end up to help make more of a teardrop base to work with. Just cutting a slit in the wide end and gluing the ends to cradle the ball results in the skinny end splaying out further than there is material to bring the two tips back together.
I will pass this along to Krista; maybe she can give you some ideas too. She is so good at working with felt. 😉
Ok! Here is what Krista says: After starting a base with the 2 petals in the middle for the bud (the sides will be open), glue on all the petals overlapping at an angle. It helps to glue just the middle of the petals at first, so that you can adjust and glue them all flat once they are all placed. There was a bit of a gap at the tip but I just applied some glue inside and pinched it into place. It’s also great that you figured out that you can cut slits to curve the felt a bit better, once you glue them down they can be invisible. Any ugly edges near the bottom of the teardrop shape can be strategically covered with the sepal when you glue that on.
I was very inspired by the whole bouquet during the February sneak peek of March’s member make tulips. It is just overflowing with spring-iness and I have to make it! These lisianthus are my very first felt flowers and I’m having a really tough time getting the buds to spiral closed at the top. All three of the medium/pink buds that I’ve tried so far are all “starting to open” and look more cylindrical than teardrop-shaped. Any advice as to how to get them tighter and more teardropped?
I have tried cutting a deeper slit in the two petals that start the bud to make the inside shorter, on the last two I also tried starting the bud shape with a 12mm cotton spun ball (my size estimate based on the 1cm felt ball used for the green bud), and I have pinched the inner petal in half and glued the edges of the outer petal as far overlapped as I can get them so that the two tips meet before stuffing them with polyfil as suggested. I’ve only glued the base of the four in rotation at first, and then tried to work them into a tight spiral with my hands (a la frosted gardenia) before gluing any further up the petal but I wound up with really lumpy edges and they still wouldn’t close up. I tried angling the petals more to the side but that just made the sides shorter. I’m rather stumped and will take any suggestions you and Krista can offer. I did successfully finish a couple of the full blooms though and they are just lovely! It may take me a bit to get going but I don’t think this will be my last felt flower 🙂
Krista is off getting married this weekend, so I will see if I can help. Did you try adding some glue up the petal, maybe halfway or closer to the area where the petals can still be touching each other?
Lia, Can these be made from crepe instead of felt?
You can try, but we also have a crepe paper lisianthus. https://liagriffith.com/member-make-crepe-paper-lisianthus-flowers/ You can make it in the Lilac crepe paper.
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