How to Make Felt Roses for A Doll

Our "Cheyenne Rose" Magic Attic Doll
models with the roses.

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"

William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

       Every little doll loves to receive roses for Valentine's Day, especially if these flowers are made from felt! Felt roses are not only soft, but they also have a very long shelf life! 

       Here you can see that I chose to craft roses from white, red and hot pink felt for our Doll's Valentine Party. But you could choose to make your own pretend roses from any color of felt you like such as: peach, coral, buff pink, ivory, yellow or maybe even lavender.

       You will also need a selection of green felts for the petals of your roses. I chose to use three variations of green.

       Clip chenille stems in advance to three or four inches in length. I used both fuzzy chenille stems and sparkly metallic green stems because this is what I already had on hand. 

       You may need to purchase a new, sharper pair of scissors in order to the complete the craft. Felt has a tendency to quickly dull scissor blades. Duller scissors could make this craft seem somewhat tedious.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Cut petal shapes from your felt. You can see that my petals are arched at one end and flat on the opposite end. Cut many of these shapes in advance prior to the gluing process for whatever color of flower you prefer. For an 18inch doll you will need to make the petals approximately 3/4 to 1inch in diameter. Center the tip of your chenille stem on the felt petal with a small amount of hot glue beneath it.
2. Press together the sides of the petal around the chenille tip and hold it in place until the glue dries. This is a quicker process with hot glue but not a safe one for very young children. If you are too young to use a hot glue gun, you may use tacky white glue and hold the petals a little longer as you go. 
3. Next you will need to squeeze a bit of glue on either side of the first petal in order to stick the next petal around the edges of the first. Hold the two in place until the glue dries.
4. Now proceed to add more petals around the circumference of the growing blossom. 
5. You can add as many petals as you like, depending on the size you would like your rose to become. Rosebuds are obviously smaller with fewer petals.
6. When you have finished making your felt rose, you can then decide if you would like to glue on a few green felt leaves as seen in the photos below. If you are using tacky white glue to make the rose, wrap a tiny rubber band around the thickest part of the flower to hold all of the drying petals in place until they are dry.

More About Crafting Candy Roses:

• Assemble Hershey Kiss Bouquets for Valentine's Day
• Craft a Paper Candy Posy for Your Valentine

More About Crafting Flowers for Dolls:

• Make recycled doll sized flowers from egg cartons by American Girl Doll Fan
• Create your own doll sized planter from recycled materials by Karen Mom of Three's Craft Blog

More About Fabric Rose Crafts:

• How to make felt roses by The Flower Art
• Ribbon Roses by HandiWorks
• How to make burlap roses
• Craft fabric rose buds by Djanilda Ferreira

Roses Handcrafted From Other Materials:

• How to make tissue paper roses by CraftCorner
• Origami Pentagon Rose Process by Tadashi Mori
• D.I.Y. Zero Waste - Corn Husk Flowers Including Roses by MyInDulzens

Left, cut rose petals from hot pink and red felt. Center, Clipping the fuzzy edges of the felt rose stem and adding the
 leaves of the rose. Right, the white felt roses as seen from the top.

Above are the felt roses from a variety of angles. 

Left, a green vase of felt roses. Center and Right, Our lovely Magic Attic, Rosa doll holds a bouquet of felt roses.