Pulled thread ribbon flower

Tis tutorial is brought to you by Craft Fairy Designs and there are lots more tutorials to see on the Craft Fairy Designs blog so please pop on over to have a look.
Well, the last post on ribbon flowers seems to have gone down really well, so, I've decided to post another type of ribbon flower for you all. Just in case you all think that I can't use anything other than pink, I've made this one in blue.

I did stoop to pink for the thread that I used to gather the ribbon. I did this for a purpose though as it is easier to see in the photographs.

Decide on the number of petals that you want. I used 5. The more petals, the bigger the hole that will be left in the middle to cover up with a button or a stamen of some sort. You'll see what I mean as we progress.If you decide on 5 petals than the length of ribbon used to make each petal should be 2 1/2 times the width of the ribbon. Yes maths!
Made simple
Ribbon = 16mm
Length required for each petal = 40mm
5 petals = 200mm or 20 cm.
Leave an extra cm or 2 for the folding over of the edges. You can always cut off any excess but you can't get it if it isn't there.
So you will need a piece of 16mm ribbon that is about 22 cm long.

Place the ribbon on the table in front of you. The side furthest from you is the inner edge and the one closes to you is the outer edge of the flower.
Mark the ribbon into sections on the inner edge. On a 16mm ribbon these ehould be every 40mm.
Using a running stitch sew along the ribbon as shown in the photograph. Remember to loop the thread over the outer edge of the ribbon when you get to the top of each section. Sew your 5 sections. End with the thread at the outer edge of the ribbon.

Start to pull the thread. You will see the ribbon curl up in front of you. Don't panic. Keep on pulling gently until the petals emerge. The reason for looping the thread over the ribbon is that it pulls the petal into the centre nicely.

You will end up with this curly mess that you see below. Tease it out and you will see the petals. Make sure that the thread is pulled as tightly as possibe without breaking the thread so that the gap in the center is as small as possible. The two inner edges of the flower should be brought together and stitched to hold them in place.

Turn the raw wdges to the back of the flower and stitch in place. Sew a button into the center to cover the unsightly bit.

A Corsage from Paper Flowers

Recently, at Craft Fairy, I've taken delivery of a large number of fantastic paper flowers and they are too wonderful to leave untouched in boxes until they sell. So I've decided to put my floristry training into practice and show everyone how to use the flowers to make a corsge.

Set out what you need to start with:

On my table I had small yellow (it said yellow on the packet but they really are cream!) rose buds.

Small open tea roses in cream.

Medium open tea roses in fuchsia.

Large curly roses in Cream.

A couple of green hydrangea petals and
some tacky glue.

First of all I cut the green flower in four as seen below.

Then I layered the smaller roses as shown below. Start with the smallest flower at the top and gradually wor down to the largest of the three.

Now twist the stems together.

Add some glue to the base of the leaf .

Glue behind the flowers as seen below.

Repeat the same steps with flowers and leaves for the other side. Lay them on the table and cross over at the centre point.


Put the large rose in the centre and then twist the wires together at the back of the corsage so that they lie flat. At this point, this is what you'll end up with.

However, I decided that it looked a little empty in the middle so I glued some green petals behind the central flower and I was happy with the way that it looked.

Lots more inspiration on my Craft Fairy blog.