Ribbon Flower Tutorial

Right now we have a Japanese student living with us for 2 weeks.  Her name is Ayaka.  She is a lot of fun.  She loved the flowers I made for the girls and wanted me to teach her how to make them.  I started with the ribbon flowers, and some time this week I will teach her how to make the fabric ones.  She caught on very quickly and before I knew it, she had made 13 flowers!  My favorite is the picture of her wearing them all at once!  :)

Let's get started!  For the large flowers I use 1 ½" Ribbon.  You need 5: 4 inch pieces.  I like to mark my ribbon in 4 inch increments and then cut it all at once.  Makes it a little easier!

Next you are going to fold your petals.  Make sure you have your needle and thread ready to go!  First you fold it like this...

And then you will fold over the top to form this...

And this it really hard to tell what I just did...here is a little video that might help a little!

It may take a little practice to get the folding down, when you make the first fold try to keep it in the center of the ribbon, you want your ends to match up.  

After you finish each petal you will want to sew it together, I just stitch across the bottom of the ribbons, and then push it off onto the thread.

Make sure you hold them all the same direction when you sew them so they all have the fronts facing the same way.  Here are my 5 petals all on the thread.  This is a view of the backs of the petals.

Tie the threads together, pulling tight, but be careful not to pull too tight or your string can break, and that is the most annoying this, especially since you will have to sew them together again.  Here's my finished flower.

Here is a view of what the back of the flower will look like.

Now you can stop here and attach it to a hair clip and add a cute little center, or you can make a smaller flower to add to the top.  I use 7/8" ribbon.  You will need 5 pieces again, this time cut to 2 ½ - 3", depending on what you like.  Fold and sew them together the same way you did with the larger flower.

It fits nicely on top of your other flower.

I use hot glue to put mine all together.  I do it the same way I do with the fabric flowers, only I use a felt circle on the bottom instead fabric.  If you need, you can read how I glued them together here!  

Another idea...late last year I went CrAzY making these for my girls!  To make them a little more versatile I made them interchangeable!  I used large snaps and glued them to the top of the large flower and bottom of the small flower.  Then I could easily pop off the smaller flower and change colors to match different outfits.  Hot glue held the snaps pretty well...just be a little careful when pulling them apart.

Oh, and don't forget to add a cute center to your flowers.  You can use anything...gems, glitter discs, brads.  

Fabric Hair Flower Tutorial

I just love these hair flowers for my daughters and myself!  Several months ago I had run across them on a blog, and have not been able to find it again...luckily they were easy enough for me to remember, so here I am showing all of you how to make them!

First, pick out 2 fabrics...I usually use leftovers from a project.  Then you will want to get a circle you can trace...I like to use my favorite shrek glasses I got a few years back!  They are 3½ inches in diameter.  Use a pencil and trace around whatever you are using.

For the bottom flower you will need 5 circles, and for the top flower you will need 3. 

Cut out all the circles.  

Fold each of them in half and press with your iron.

Cut each circle in half along the crease.  You will have lots of half circles like this:

Fold your half circles in half, right sides together, one at a time...

Sew together along the straight edge.  

Just keep sewing one after the other...

And when you are done you will have a long chain!  Next you will cut them all apart from eachother.

Turn each petal right side out, I use a skewer that I trimmed the point back on so it doesn't poke through my fabric.  Make sure to push the point out the best you can.

My kids think the petals look like barbie party hats.  If you sewed all 10 of the bottom flower petals you will have an extra one...you only need 9 for the actual flower.  So they really do work as a hat!  Haha...ok, I'm a dork!

Next you need to thread a needle and begin sewing the petals together (I double over the thread to make it a bit stronger)!  Stitch along the bottom of the each petal...make sure you put the seam to one side of the petal and keep it on the same side for all the petals you sew.

For the bottom flower sew 9 petals, for the top flower sew 6.  Here is my bottom flower once I had all 9 on.  Next I will tie the ends together in a nice knot (don't pull too tight or your thread could snap...that is really frustrating, believe me!  So be careful).  Trim your strings.

Here are both of my flowers all sewn together.

Now I am going to glue them together to make a darling hair clip!

I have both of my flowers, an alligator clip (which I got at Sally beauty supply...a box of 100 for only $5), a small circle to cover the back, and a fabric button I covered to match.

Put a small line of hot glue across the back side of the circle.  Clip the alligator clip right onto the glue like so:  

You can't really tell, but that is the back side of the fabric facing up.  Cover it with hot glue now, and the top of the clip, and glue it to the back of your bottom flower.

Flip it over and put some hot glue in the center of the bottom flower and stick on the top one.  Glue on the button or whatever you want to use for the center of your flower and you are done!

Here are some others I have made:

You can do the fabrics however you want...On the top flower I used 3 different fabrics, and just alternated them on both layers.  I love how it turned out!  Have fun with it! :)