If you’re like me, you just might have a BIG love for flowered accessories. Big, giant flowers! I have a serious love for giant flowers to wear in my hear, on a sash, on my lapel, love, love, love them! My daughter is quick becoming a lover of giant flowers, so I got to work making these zebra print flower headbands for her party guests.
Yup, that’s me. I love how these turned out, so I thought I’d share the process with you, just in case you would like to make one, or 6, of your own!
To start, gather your supplies. You will need ribbon, a needle and thread or a sewing machine, felt, fabric glue or a glue gun and an elastic headband.
Cut approx. 1.5 meters of ribbon. You need to gather your ribbon so your flower has that nice ruffly look. You can do this by hand or on a sewing machine, although sewing machine is faster. To gather your ribbon, sew a running stitch along one side of the ribbon.
Your running stitch should be loose and your stitches should be approx 1/4 inch long. If using a sewing machine, you may only need to increase your stitch length by a couple of settings and set your tension to the lowest setting.
If sewing by hand, keep your stitches approx 1/4 inch long and loose. I would insert the needle up and down through the ribbon multiple times before pulling the thread through, so it looks like this:
This keeps your stitches nice and loose and once you get into a groove, the sewing goes by fairly quickly. Once you have a running stitch along the entire length of the ribbon, gently slide the ribbon along the thread to create the gathers. If you use a sewing machine, you will end up with a tangled, gathered mess of ribbon like this:
Don’t worry, that is just what you want.
Next, cut out two circles of felt approx 3 inches diameter.
Using your fabric glue or glue gun, run a line of glue along the edge of the felt and press the end of your ribbon into place. Do not tug or try to straighten your ribbon, gently smooth out the twists and place the gathers evenly as you press the ribbon into the glue.
Continue gluing the ribbon in a spiral pattern onto the felt, gently smoothing the ribbon and placing the gathers as evenly as possible, until you reach the center.
If you hit the center with excess ribbon, trim the ribbon down to about 1 inch. Fold in the raw edge of the ribbon and secure with glue. This will ensure you have a clean, finished edge at the center of your flower and will prevent the ribbon from fraying. Fold the ribbon backwards so the patterned side of the ribbon is facing out on both sides. Place a dab of glue in the center of the flower and press your fold of ribbon into the glue.
At this point you can leave the flower as is, or you can embellish the center with a button. I chose to leave the centers as is for this flower.
Once you flip your flower over, you will notice the glue seeping through the felt, so you’ll want to cover that up with the second circle of felt. Run a line of glue along the outer edge of the felt backing and gently press the second felt circle on top. Now you have a clean, finished back!
Cut a small rectangle of felt. You will use this to secure the flower to your headband. Place your headband flat along the center of the flower backing. Add a line of glue along both short edges of your felt rectangle and press it onto the flower backing.
This will secure your headband to the flower while still allowing your headband to stretch.
Let set according to the directions on your glue. Most fabric glues require 24 hrs to set; glue gun sets in about an hour.
Wear your ribbon headband with your beautiful smile and proudly declare “I made it!” when asked where you got that lovely flower in your hair!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions, please leave me a comment below and I will get back to you! Even if you don’t have a question, leave me a comment, I love comments!
