Did you know that you can dye fabric by pounding flowers? This unique flower tote bag makes a perfect Mother’s Day gift – and the kids will love creating it!
I saw a tutorial for flower hammering/pounding a while back, and I knew that I just had to try it with my kids. With Mother’s Day right around the corner, I thought we’d make some prints on a tote bag for a fun Mother’s Day gift.
A tote bag is perfect since you don’t really have to wash it, and the natural flower dyes are less likely to fade away. These were so fun and easy for the kids to make, and they turned out really beautiful!
DIY Flower Tote Bag
Supplies needed:
- cotton tote – Note that this is a thinner cotton tote, not canvas. I think canvas would be too rough, so I found this thinner one at Hobby Lobby
- alum powder – I bought this online
- rubber gloves
- parchment paper
- masking tape
- flowers
- board
- hammer
To help the natural dyes take to the fabric, you need to prepare the bag first. Wash the bag to get rid of any residue. Next, dissolve 1/4 cup of alum in 2 cups of hot water. Soak the bag in the mixture, wring it out, and let it air dry.
Do not wash or rinse the bag again before dyeing. Iron it to get out all of the wrinkles. When using the alum, make sure to wear your gloves and don’t use any utensils or containers that are going to come in contact with food later.
Once your bag is ready, slip a piece of wax or parchment paper inside to keep the flower dye from leaking through.
Gather your flowers and leaves. The smaller ones that we used are marigolds and petunias, but I’m not sure what the other ones are. The marigolds definitely worked the best. I love the bright orange!
If the flower is really full, with lots of layers of petals, you’ll want to pluck a bunch off first, so the prints come out nicer. I left the green stems on the the flowers, but told the kids not to hammer them.
You can try to take them off, but I didn’t want the flowers to fall apart. Lay your flowers out on the bag, and secure them with lots of masking tape.
Put the bag on top of your board and hammer away! Be careful with any extra “juicy” plants. The leaves we used splattered if you hit them too hard, and I even got squirted with one! The kids thought that was hilarious.
Also make sure you hit every part of the flowers. At first we had some flower prints that turned out just looking like a bunch of dots/hammer marks. It’s a good idea to try it out on some scrap fabric or paper first.
Peel the flowers and tape off to reveal your print! So exciting!
We added some more flowers and even a few random petals here and there.
When you are done, let everything dry, then put another piece of parchment paper on top of the bag and iron over your design with a hot, dry iron. This will help the colors set in and keep them from fading.
I don’t know how well the dyes will hold up in the wash, so I don’t recommend washing unless you really need to.
This flower tote bag was seriously such a great craft for the kids (and me). You have to try it out and make a Mother’s Day gift of your own! I want to plant more flowers just so we can make more pretty designs!
For more crafts like this, check out the following ideas – these are some of my favorite for Mother’s Day:
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Taylor says
Hello 🙂 such a fun idea. I basically use this process to make my art prints 🙂 I haven’t thought of using it on cotton. Love it. Wondering if you washed the bag after, or what would the after care process be?
Joanna says
Lovely idea. Thanks for posting this diy project.
Can’t wait to try to make one for my mom as a mother’s day gift.
Margrethe M says
Hello! 😀
Wow, I really like this tutorial. It turned out great! I would really like to know how the colors turned out after a while. Did they loose the saturated look?
All the best, Margrethe ????
Rhonda says
Is the alum powder the same alum that is in my spice cabinet? I can’t find the bag you posted anywhere that I can get it delivered before Mother’s Day. Wondering if I can just use what you buy in the grocery store?
Thanks,
Rhonda
Amy says
It is! However, I recommended the Amazon source because of how expensive it is 🙂
Carrie Woolley says
Do you think you could use the flowers more than once? Or does each bag need fresh flowers?
Amy says
Hi Carrie! It depends on how “juicy” the flowers are. You want lots of pigment from the flavanoids! I would be inclined to try on more than one bag if I had very fresh flowers.
Leslie says
I loved this idea and followed directions exactly. Very disappointed. Only the yellow flowers came through. We tried several different types of floeers but the pink ones all came out brown. I was doing this with my grandchildren for their mothers and they didn’t like how it came out either. They ended up painting their bags
Amy says
Thanks for the feedback Leslie! Sorry it didn’t work out for you. It probably depends on the flowers. We had success, but sometimes projects just don’t work out!