Ribbon Flower Tutorial

A friend of mine showed me a little hair clip with a ribbon flower and asked me how to make it.  There are many, many ways to make ribbon flowers, but here's the method I want to share today.  If I find some willpower, maybe I'll share some more.

Step 1: Start with a a piece of 1 inch ribbon and a 50sen coin.  (This method is most useful for Malaysians).  For a 1/2 inch ribbon, use a 20sen coin.

Step 2: Put the ribbon on the table with the shiny side down. Using the 50sen coin as a guide, draw a petal on the back side of the ribbon.  Keep drawing petals until you get 5-6 petals all in a row.

Step 3:  Leave a bit of space, then cut the ribbon after the last petal.

 
Step 4: Take a longish piece of thread and tie a quilter's knot in it.  Just wrap the thread around the needle.  Pinch the part of the needle wrapped with thread between your fingers.  Pull the needle through and tighten to make a knot.

Step 5:  Starting from the right, do a running stitch along the petals.  Make sure to stitch almost to the edge of the ribbon

 Step 6: Keep stitching, pulling the stitches as you go until you get to the end. The petals will ruffle up as you pull.

 Step 7:  When the last petal is done, tuck the ends of the ribbon upward.  Stitch the ends together.  Take a few stitches through the center, to hold everything together.  Tie off the thread and cut it.

Step 8: Turn the flower over and embellish the center with buttons or beads.  Tadaa, the flower is done!

Thimble ring stitching

I was sad that I missed Chloe Patricia's 'Share your thimbles' last month. So this month, I'm starting early. I'm also doing a thimble ring post, just for my own reference.

From her blog post (third picture down), I think Chloe Patricia takes her stitches from the middle to the edge. One of the Japanese books shows how to stitch from the edge to middle.

I tried both ways, but for both methods, I kept turning the ring over and over to get the needle at the correct angle to take a stitch. To avoid tangling and needle pricks, I ended up unthreading and rethreading the needle after every round. This was causing shredded thread and frustration. Threading needles is hard on the eyes.

I really wanted to work out a way to keep my needles threaded between rounds. Here's the method that works for me.

So here's a bangle in progress. It has 6 paths. At this point, 4 paths have been started and I've secured the thread to start the 5th round. You can see the 4 needles stuck in the base fabric and the 5th needle waiting to go.

Here's the first stitch. The needle goes from the edge to the middle (right to left) with the thread under the needle.

Here's the second stitch. The needle goes from the middle to the edge (still right to left) with the thread still under the needle.


So I just go around this way to get a full path. With this method, I just hold the ring vertical with my left had, rotating the ring as I go and always taking my stitches from right to left. I leave my needles threaded and stuck in the base fabric as I stitch.

Here are the 3rd and 4th stitches.


I also found some computer aid to help me do base markings. I use this site to generate graph paper. I set the horizontal grid spacing to the height of my ring. I set the vertical grid spacing to the width of a section. Then print, cut and use.

Magic thread trick

I read about using floss threaders on Jon Yusoff's blog (also in Crazy Mom Tats) . I was so excited when I found some at a local pharmacy. Unfortunately, it didn't work well with my current project. Maybe the perle 8 was too thin and squishy. Maybe I had the wrong brand.

Anyway, it did get me thinking about other things to use for the magic thread trick. Here are two that I'm trying.


The one with a circle on the end is a needle threader. I've read about using them in other places (Teri Dusenbury's blog and as a tool here). The longer one is a twisted wire needle (used for beading). The eye is collapsible, so it pulls through very easily. As long as I keep my stitches loose, it works great.