I thought I’d post the ribbon flower clips I’ve made to match my daughter’s Easter dress. The outfit is from Janie and Jack’s 2008 Sweet Coral Reef collection, which I managed to catch on clearance. I picked up a cheap straw hat, removed the minimal embellishments it came with, and replaced them with my own. I wrapped and hot glued a 7/8” grosgrain ribbon around the hat and clipped on two grosgrain flowers, which are attached to alligator clips. This way, she can wear the flowers on the hat, and when we remove the hat, she can wear the flowers in her hair (though they also look cute clipped to her sweater!).

I made these flowers with two layers each: 8 petals on the bottom layer, and 6 petals on the top layer. The larger flower is made with 7/8” wide grosgrain ribbon and measures about 3.5” wide (without leaves). The smaller purple flower is made with 7/8” ribbon for the bottom layer and 5/8” wide ribbon for the top layer, (though I think it may work better if it were all 5/8”, the bottom layer is a little squished). The little purple flower measures about 2.5” wide without the leaves. Attach a couple of ribbon “leaves” to the bottom, glue to a covered alligator clip and get creative with your centers.

Stay tuned for tulips!

I first attempted a Folding Method as outlined at wickihow: How to Make Silk, Satin or Ribbon Roses. I got this to work some of the time, but not all of the time, and I didn’t feel that the finished rose was particularly sturdy (though that could be due to my inexperience). My bows are often worn by kids, so I do my best to make them indestructible. I did like the rather geometric style of the rose, though, so I thought I’d give it a mention here. (If you swear by this method, give me a shout and let me know what I’m doing wrong!)

Next I tried a popular method I’ll call Wrap and Fold (creative, I know). I used these instructions: Offray’s All About Roses. You basically start at the center of the rose and wind your ribbon around the center, folding it back periodically as you go. This is really easy and the only trick is to find your rhythm as far as how much to wrap, when to fold, and what angle to fold at. This you’ll pick up quickly with minimal practice. You can also get the basic premise from watching a few minutes of this YouTube video by sewcrafty1.

Back to the bow pictured above. As you can see, I skipped the stem entirely and just made a ribbon “leaf” as the base of my hair bow, gluing a lined alligator clip to the back of the “leaf”. Important to note: I gave up sewing my bows years ago, and I’m quite convinced that hot glue and wire are the best way to go in most cases. To make my ribbon roses as strong as possible, (wire and stem free) I glued each layer of the rose at the base as I wrapped the ribbon around the center. So I did wrap, glue, fold, wrap glue fold. It was easier than it sounds and, I think, pretty sturdy. The only drawback of gluing is that you can’t later twist the rose from the center, but I did my adjustments as I went along, so it wasn’t necessary.

The larger roses shown are made with 7/8” wide ribbon and the smaller with 5/8”. The blue and white striped rose was printed only on one side, adding a bit of interest. It’s larger than the light blue rose simply because it was wrapped more times.

Design Tip: You can obviously choose any ribbons or configurations. Worth noting, though, that groups of three are generally pleasing, and varying the sizes makes it easier to create a successful composition.

I almost forgot. That Third Method I found is at Burda Style: Valentine’s Flowers. I haven’t tried it yet, but if you do, let me know what you think.

I’d love to see your creations, and feel free to post questions, thoughts, your designs and ideas!