Thursday, March 31, 2011

Satin Ribbon Flower Tutorial

We just got this great ribbon in at the store - PERFECT for making flowers!  Here's how:

1.) Start with a piece of felt, scissors, fabric glue such as Fabri-Tac, and a half yard or so of double faced satin ribbon 1.5" (I used May Arts ribbon).  You want double faced so that one side doesn't have a dull color when you start twisting.   The felt can be any size as long as it is big enough to get about a 1 1/2 inch circle. 


2)  Cut a circle from the felt using your scissors.  The circle does not have to be perfect and it should be about 1 1/2 inches, but again does not have to be perfect or exact.


3)  Tie a knot at the end of the ribbon and pull it tight.  Don't mind my Fabri-Tac covered fingers :)




4)  Add the fabric adhesive to the center of the circle (or as close to the center as you can get)



5)  Press the knot of your ribbon onto the adhesive dot in the circle.  Hold down for a minute to be sure there is a hold before you start twisting the ribbon.



6)  Pressing the knot still, start rotating the circle to the left as you twist the ribbon to the right with the other hand.  You'll be twisting the ribbon to the right but laying it down to the left around the circle.



7)  Rather than adding all the adhesive at once on the circle, you'll want to add little amounts of adhesive infront of the ribbon that you'll be putting down.  If you have adhesive all over it, your ribbon will fall into it as you twist and you don't want adhesive all over your flower! Here I used my thumb to hold the knot and my pointer to hold down the last part that was twisted and glued.  I held that for about 30 seconds before moving on. 




8)  When you get to the end, cut off the extra ribbon, leaving about a 1/4 - 1/2 inch that will be folded behind.  If you end up with not enough ribbon, no worries, just cut off the extra felt around it, being careful not to cut into your ribbon.


9)  While still holding the flower in place, turn it over and put a drop of fabric glue on the back near the remainder of the ribbon.


10)  Fold over the ribbon and hold in place for about 30 seconds.  It will take longer than this to fully dry, but that should hold it in place.


11) Tada!  Mine is a little off center, but I think it still looks fine.  I'm going to let myself be a little forgiving :)



12)  Adding embellishments:  We all love embellishments, don't we??  You could use your flower just like this, but who doesn't want to add buttons, pearl, or whatever else you have lying around!


I had these Tim Holtz buttons

Add some fabric glue to the back of the button or any other embellishments you'll be using


Finished!

You can see the difference - You can twist your ribbon loosely or tightly for different looks.

2 comments:

  1. Looks great. I'm going to have to buy some ribbon :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. love it, thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete