Winter seems to have given me a passion for flowers, bright coloured and cheerful but rather than sitting in a vase I want these flowers to be long lasting and versatile so I’ve been searching crafty sites for inspiration to work flowers into everything.
Today’s post is a crafty guide on ribbon flowers, with a seemingly unlimited choice of colours, patterns and textures, ribbon is just perfect for interesting flowers.
Collect supplies:
- 2 meters of ribbons of your choice in contrasting or complimentary colours
- Small cute buttons to make the centre of your flowers
- Needle and co-ordinating cotton thread
- Scissors
- Tape measure
1. Take a length of ribbon and measure around your head leaving enough extra to be able to tie a bow or knot, it’s useful to seal the ends with nail varnish or fray stopper.
2. Cut a length of ribbon about 8 times as long as the ribbon’s width (if your ribbon is half an inch this would be 0.5 x 8 = 4inches) You can experiment with different lengths, shorter lengths tend to curl up more, longer lengths make flatter flowers. Again seal the ends before stitching.
3. Take a nice long length of thread, about half a metre should do the trick, make a large knot in one end and carefully sew the two ends of the ribbon together to form a loop, I use a quick blanket stitch and then a running stitch and finish on the same side as your starting knot.
4. Using a running stitch work around the loop using stitches just a few mms in length, you want to finish on the outside of the loop.
5. Now carefully pull the cotton thread really tight, until just before the cotton snaps and the flower should curl up, tie a knot in the thread but leave the extra thread as we’ll use this later.
6. Repeat for as many flowers as you like.
7. Next take your button and sew it into place in the centre of your flower, the sewn ribbon ends at the back, with just a few stitches.
8. Decide where you want to attach your flowers to your headband, I like mine slightly off centre, then using stitch through the button, catching the inside of the flower and sew onto the headband securely. Repeat for other flowers and ta da.
These headbands would make great flower girl and bridesmaid accessories, you could turn them into a brooch, sew them onto a purse or bag or even make lots and pile them up in a shallow bowl.
Comments