Flower Smashing Fabric

I saw an blog on BurdaStyle that was all about Eco-Dying Fabric.  They showed one about flower smashing to "stain" the fabric and I loved it!  This is my process of going through the Flower Smashing Technique. 

Supplies Needed:

• Flowers/leaves of your choice (make sure they are fresh and still moist)
• Fabric (100% cotton preferably a lighter color, white will work best)
• Duct Tape
• Shears
• Hammer/Mallet

Directions:

1. Prepping Fabric:  If you want to get vibrant colors from the flowers you're going to want to set/fix the fabric.  I did this by mixing 4 parts water to 1 part vinegar.  Bring to a boil in a large pot and put fabric in pot, let simmer for 1 hour.  It will smell so open some windows or you can try this website for other ways to Fix Fabric.  Let hang dry.
2. Once your fabric has dried set on a flat surface (you want this to be a space you don't care about, or have it covered with plastic) and begin to spread out your flowers in the design you would like.

3. Now begin putting duct tape strips over the flowers to hold them in place.

4. Now with flowers facing down put plastic over fabric, you can cut up a trash bag, I didn't do this the first time and when I began to hammer the color of the flowers got onto the hammer and I begin spreading that and made it look spotty, so this will make it cleaner, but if you want a more abstract look you can choose not to  cover the fabric with plastic. Begin smashing your flowers with a hammer or mallet.  You will instantly be able to see the colors seeping through the fabric.
5. Take tape off and remains of flowers.  Let dry for about an hour.
6. Now to set the colors in the fabric with an iron press for about 5 seconds, the areas that were smashed.  Now your fabric is ready to use for your sewing projects.

I made 3 insulated tote bags with a pattern I found here for Christmas gifts.