Last Friday I showed you a bunch of ribbon I received from Mindy Mae’s Market. I wanted to give you the tutorial for how I made the ruffled ribbon flowers. They are incredibly simple to make especially with a ruffle foot.
Supplies:
Sewing machine with Ruffle foot
coordinating thread
hot glue
felt
lighter
Do you have a ruffle foot for your sewing machine? I think it is a must have for anyone who likes to sew and adores ruffles. I bought mine on Ebay for $23. It looks kinda of scary when you see it but once you read the instructions it is really easy to get the ruffle you desire.
I singed both ends of the grosgrain ribbon with a lighter to seal the ends. Then I ran about 2 yards of ribbon through my ruffle foot with the foot set at 1 and my tension at a 4. You will have to experiment with your stitch length to find the ruffle you desire. Of course you could just do a long running stitch and pull one of the threads to ruffle it as well. But it is so wonderful to just run it through a machine and get the desire ruffle without pulling, tugging or the possibility of a broken string.
I cut my strings and was left with one long ruffle.
I started at one end rolling it up and rolled the entire flower up.
While holding it all in place I squirted out some hot glue into a circle shape onto a scrap of felt.
Then I cut around the felt to form a circle in the back.
At this point you can glue them on a bag, add an alligator clip for your hair, glue them to a belt or a pin to make a brooch. I mean there are a zillion different things you can do with ribbon flowers, right?
Do you like making flowers? Check out a few more of my tutorials here…
How to Make Felt Flowers
How to Make Duck Tape Flowers
How in the world do I not have a ruffler foot?! Now I must get one. Those little flowers are adorable!
Well, that seals the deal. I need to ask for a ruffle foot for my sewing machine for my bday!! I’ve paid for ruffled ribbon by the yard before, and it’s not cheap. How cool to be able to make your own. 🙂
I love these flowers. I usually lean toward the more abstract flowers… but there is something about these that looks just a tad more finished, yet soft.
I wandering if you can ruffle the ribbon by gathering it the old fashion way????
Sure you can, but if you do a ton of them a ruffle foot might be a good investment. Check out homesew.com. I had a reader who got one for $10!
I have a ruffle foot….have had it for 40 years and NEVER used it. I will now. Thank you!
I bought my ruffle foot from homesew.com for $10. Now I just need to actually use it:)
$10!!! Dude you got a deal!
The ruffle flowers are great! I love all of your color choices:)
These are too cute! I noticed you’re an obvious fan of Mindy Mae’s Market (I recogonize nearly all the items in this post 😉 hehe) and wanted to invite you to participate in the craft competition I’m hosting with the girls from MMM! The winner will get a $50 gift cert to MMM! For more details visit here: http://embracingmessy.blogspot.com/2012/03/craft-contest-with-mindy-maes-market.html
Hope to see you there!
Kelsey
I really need a ruffle foot. Those flowers are so cute but I especially love the welcome sign with the flower.
I better lay off the idea of buying the ruffle foot. Otherwise, the whole World will end up ruffles once I start overusing it!
I am trying to ruffle grosgrain ribbon down the center of the ribbon (for a different project)I am going about it the “old” way with just pulling the thread. It looks great, but. The ribbon is splitting down the center, would a ruffle foot solve this problem? I don’t see any of yours doing that..
What was the width of the ribbon you used for the flowers? I love love them!!!!!!
How much ribbon did you use for this flower? It is too stinkin’ cute!
I think about a yard.
What is a Ruffle Foot? I only started sewing about a year ago so you’re speaking a foreign language to me. I love this flower and my BFF wants one on the garter we’re making for her wedding, yet I do not know how to do it.
It’s an attachment you can buy for your sewing machine to gather a strip of fabric, or ribbon in this case. It looks a little scary at first but it makes it way easy to create ruffles. You may be able to buy a flower like this off Etsy too.