When I went to visit some textile students I promised a tutorial on a couple of ways of making ribbon flowers and thought I should share it here in case anyone else might find it useful.
Method 1
This uses either a 10cm wide 1m long strip of fabric with the long sides folded in so they meet in the middle (with the right side facing out), ironed but not sewn, or 1m of ribbon at least 5cm wide. Here I have used a satin ribbon.
method 1. fold ribbon or strip of fabric at 45 degreespin in place, turn the ribbon over and fold again so it lies against the first turn, and pin.continue along the length of the ribbontuck in the end, fix the thread at a corner with knot/oversewing and do a loose running stitch along the narrow end, along one long side and up the other endpull the thread to gather the folded ribbon tightlyroll up the gathered ribbon, keeping the gathered edge level, and stitch it in place as you gothe finished flower looks like this and can be left at this point if being sewn directly on to a garment or bagI usually turn the flowers in to brooches and I like to add felt leaves cut with pinking shears (you could also embroider veins on the leaves)sew the leaves to the flower’s gathered edgesew a brooch back to a circle of felt and sew the circle to the back of the flower, covering the gathering and stitches.finished method 1 flower
Method 2
This method uses a strip of fabric folded and ironed as for method 1 or a piece of ribbon, but is less fiddly and can be made with any width of fabric or ribbon. If you use a strip of fabric, ensure the raw edges face in to the centre of the flower as you make it.
method 2. take the ribbon (or folded strip of fabric) and fix the thread at a corner, then sew a loose running stitch along the end and 5cm or so along the long edge before sewing at right angles to the other edge and back to the first edge to delineate the first petalcontinue along the ribbon, making petals longer as you go and gathering each petal as you finish it (it is more difficult to gather the whole length at the endwhen the whole ribbon is gathered, secure the end to hold the gathers in placeas with method 1, roll up the gathered ribbon (starting with the smallest petals in the centre), stitching it in place as you gothe resulting flower is a bit messy – but that’s ok!push out each petal so it looks more rose likeadd leaves and a brooch back as before, if you choose
You can see the difference in the results of the two methods most clearly when they are side by side.
