How To Make A Fork Flower

Here is something kind of neat, and great for young kids. I would say it would be suitable for 4-12 year olds. A 3 year old can have fun with help.

Fork Flower

I learned how to make “fork flowers” when I was in Brownies (like Girl Scouts). I think I was maybe about 5 or 6 years old. I have since taught my daughter how to make them and she loves it. Not only does she actually make something, it helps with her fine motor skills, dexterity, how to ask for help, color planning, creativity etc etc!

You can make a bouquet of flowers, use them as ribbon to decorate a gift, tie it around the wrist as a bracelet, cut them and glue them on to paper and other crafts, make fork flowers at a birthday party, have them as a classroom art project.. Mom can crochet a simple crochet headband, then weave the flowers onto it… Maybe I will add a pattern for that (will be free)!

Anyway, here is how you make your fork flower.

MATERIALS:

1. Fork (metal or plastic will do. Supervise young children so they do not go around running with forks!!)

2. 1 strand of yarn, 20 inches or as long as desired for the stem

3. Small amount of yarn for the actual flower.

For young children (3 and 4 year olds) I find that cotton yarn (like cotton-ease, or peaches & Cream) works nice. It does not “kink” up when twisting around, and does not split easily. In my example below, I am using Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in Plum and Pink.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Step 1: Take your stem strand, and lay it in the center of fork, making ends even (in my example, it is plum).

Step 2: Take your flower yarn and lay it in first groove of fork from front to back, leaving about 1 1/2 to 2 inches down the front. The long end that is now laying down the back of the first groove will be your weaving strand. The stem will not be used until the end, just leave it be there. Note: Left-handers may want to begin with weaving strand in last groove instead of first.

Step 3: Take your weaving strand around the side to the front of the first prong of fork. Weave it in and out around each prong in the grooves. Tip: Sometimes, it helps me when starting to hold the short piece with my thumb as in photo below.

Step 4: At end of first row of weaving, repeat Step 2 by bringing yarn back to front but around last prong instead. Weave in and out between the prongs in the grooves.

Step 5: Continue to weave around prongs of fork, bringing yarn back to front again when reaching the end of each row.


Step 6: Continue to weave until reaching maybe a couple of millimeters from top.


Step 7: At end, cut weaving strand about 1-2 inches from top of last row.

Step 8: Bring strand of stem that is in back to front positioned in center groove of fork. You will then tie these 2 stem strands together on this side of fork.

Step 9: Tie 2 stem strands together tightly. Young children may need you to do this for them. You will see the woven strands begin to scrunch down in center where you are tying. Do not knot this yet.

Step 10: Slowly slide flower off of fork keeping ties taut. (If it is a loose tie, the flower may unravel). As in photo below, it will not look so much like a flower yet, and may appear kind of flat.

Step 11: Once the flower is completely off the fork, pull stem strands tight and you will see the flower begin to take form. Tie once more to knot.

Step 12: With fingers, gently shape “petals” to cover stem portion that has been tied around flower, and to also “puff” the flower out. Trim to short ends of weaving strand.

OTHER IDEAS:

If a young child has difficulty weaving between each prong, try just aiming for the center prong as follows:

If children do not grasp the actual weaving part, do not worry! Just let them go at their pace and speed and make their flower a work of art! It really does not have to be woven through perfectly. They can twist around once or twice on a prong, maybe for a few rows miss the last couple of prongs all together.. it will still look like a flower, and it will be made personally by them:

I hope you enjoyed this… If you would like more tutorials from little crafty things like this to crochet tutorials, please let me know!

Things these can be used for:

– Pins (add safety pin) and give to someone as gift / brooch

– Make stems extra long and use fork flower as bow on a present

– Hair bands

– Gift bag enclosure

– Bouquet for mom or grandma (or anyone)

– Get creative, use different colors throughout the flower portion

– Many many more uses!

34 thoughts on “How To Make A Fork Flower”

  1. What a great idea! Thank you for sharing it with us. I have a 5-year-old who’s more than keen on crochet but so far she’s only able to do finger crochet. This project will keep her occupied for a long time. I, too, will have her make these flowers for Christmas decoration :)

  2. Satu – I am so glad you love this project, and that your daughter will too! Let me know how she takes to it… There are so many things she can do with these little fork flowers! :)

  3. Cute idea! I am sure my kids will enjoy making these as well. My oldest daughter is really into flowers right now. I could imagine she would make a garland out of these for her room.

    Thanks for sharing! I would love to see more tutorials like this 😉

  4. This is a great idea. My girls are always wanting to do crocheting yet they aren’t patient enough yet. Maybe I will have them do these while I crochet. Love them. I also love the new background and layout. Very pretty.

  5. Post crafts whenever you have the time and the inclination. My kids LOVE crafts and especially my oldest daughter who is 11. Also she loves to crochet and never uses a pattern, she’s a trip!

  6. Hi Lisa, me and my daughter really enjoyed making these. They are so cute, and perfect for my three year old. Thanks so much for sharing. It inspired an article about yarn crafts for kids, and I hope you dont mind I linked to this article. Thanks again!!!

  7. Angie: I am so glad your daughter enjoyed these! And yes, that is perfectly fine about the article – thank you for giving me a link!

    Courtney: I will definitely have to post more little craft ideas… I recently began teaching my daughter how to make knotted bracelets.
    She is having a blast with them!

    Melody: I will be posting more! My daughter is now getting at the age where she is really enjoying more advanced crafting, aside from finger painting etc!

  8. We’re planning to make these with hundreds of Brownies and Rainbows on Thinking day next weekend. Thanks for the brilliantly clear instructions and pictures – should hopefully lead to a high success rate

  9. Oh that is so wonderful! I cannot wait until my daughter is old enough for Brownies – this will be a craft I definitely will be including!

  10. Our Junior GS Troop sponsored a GS “98”th Skating Birthday Party and made over 100 of these to be passed out to each guest as a “warm fuzzy”. We added a small gold safety pin to them to add to a swap hat or what ever they wished. we made all kinds of colors. Were pretty and went over well.

  11. Oh that is so wonderful!! Thank you for letting me know how it went! And that is a great idea, adding a little safety pin to wear it! I am so glad it went over well… thinking I need to make these again with my daughter and decorate with a spring flower theme!

  12. Thanks for sharing this WONDERFUL yarn craft project- I was looking for something for my daisy and brownie girls to do tomorrrow and this is PERFECT!
    thanks, Sara

  13. Colors and additional supplies will adapt this project to many needs. My daughter has autism and isn’t quite able yet to do some things, but she can do this craft. Our variations: orange yarn and green stem made pumpkins for fall, white and wiggle eyes made ghosts for Halloween, string them together to make doll boas, use a large serving fork to make jumbo puffs, add pipe cleaners to stand them in a vase for Mother’s Day, there are many more variations!

  14. This brought back so many memories! My mother loved to do crafts with us when we were little. She passed away before my last two children were born and I love to do crafts with them. She taught me so many that I can not remember all of them and had completely forgotten about this one. My kids will love it. Thank you for the reminder.

  15. I am so glad this brought back warm memories :) For some reason, this one through the years stayed with me. And it is so versatile what you can do with this little craft!! I have a little class where we will be making them and using them to decorate a mother’s day picture frame!

  16. I came across this pattern while looking for a craft idea for our new Girl Scout Troop. We wanted something easy to make to use as a swap with other troops. We are having a Thank You Tea for the returning girls and allowing them to make one to invite someone to Round up in a couple of weeks. What a great and easy idea for the girls to make and a way to get a symbol into the community for other girls to see!

    Thank you for posting this and other wonderful ideas. I too crochet and love new ideas that are easy to make so i can share them with others.

  17. Hi

    I’d forgotten about these flowers. I am a Brownie Leader and a few years ago we gave the Brownies wool to take home and every time they did a ‘good turn’ for someone they made a flower then bought them to Brownies and tied them to our ‘Think of others before yourself tree’ which was small branch sprayed gold and fixed into a flower pot with plaster of paris. Think I will have to do this again. Thanks for the reminder.

  18. Becky, I am so glad you are enjoying this!! And what a great idea to make for the Thank You Tea! I hope it all went over well!!

  19. This is really cute! I recently saw a project for a pom pom bookmark (a longer strand is tied in to use in the book). I will make a yarn flower as a bookmark too, can’t wait to try, thanks for the tutorial.

  20. I’m going to try this in the colors of the Daisy Girl Scout petals with our 5-6 year olds. And maybe try popsicle stick stems.

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