Ruffle Flower Tutorial

I finished the matching headband piece today.

Now, the way that I like to make headband flowers is so they're as versatile as possible. I like to make them so I can not only attach them to a headband, but also to a clip or alligator clip. It also wouldn't be too tough to turn it into a brooch or pin as well.

I checked with my sister in law to get her opinion on flower size before I started. She said she didn't care. I wanted to make this a little smaller than it turned out but I think it'll still look cute on my sweet niece's head. I used a couple steps that I've already mentioned before in last week's tutorial.

To begin:

The essentials -

1. Something to protect the surface you're working on. Obviously this old thing is my gluing mat - too ruined to use for any other purpose. 2. Some old felt lying around. You'll need a circle and a strip. The strip isn't pictured here but will be later. 3. A glue stick. You seriously won't need more than one, unless you're glue happy, and in that case - go nuts. 4. Needle & thread. 5. Beads. I ended up deciding to use a different bead than these, but these would have worked just fine too. 6. Glue gun. 7. Ruffle strips. I used a little more than this strip - which is where the extra fabric and needle & thread come in to make more ruffle strips.

Next: to begin...

You'll need a circle. I should have used a smaller circle because this really decides what size flower you make. This doesn't have to be perfect, but if you feel the need you can always trace something around the house.

Next:

You'll need one or two ruffle strips depending on the size of the flower you're making. I ended up using two. To see how to get the ruffle see last week's tutorial.

Next:

Begin gluing the ruffle strip to the outside edge of the circle. Right as I started the thread popped completely undoing the ruffle. Since I was using glue, I just bunched it and kept gluing so it worked well enough.

Next:

This is where the first strip stopped so I had to stop and make another. Because I don't have a sewing machine to quickly ruffle up another strip - it took a little while. Again - how I did it by hand is in here.

Next:

After the second strip I was left with a little hole. You can barely see it above but it's there. Honestly I probably could have stopped there and just glued on the bead and been fine, but I wanted to make sure everything was covered anyway.

Next:

I had a little ruffle flower left over from last week, so I used that.

Next:

So I squished it up and...

Put some glue at the bottom...

And glued it into the middle to cover up the bald spot.

Next:

I originally had different beads I planned on using but since this flower ended up a little bigger than I planned, the beads wouldn't be visible so I grabbed an old jewel bead and used it instead.

Next:

The flower portion is done, now onto the bottom to make it versatile.

Next:

I cut a little felt strip and glued it onto the bottom of the flower. Normally I like to stitch it on because it feels a little more sturdy, but in this case I think it'll work just as well to glue it on.

Next:

This strip makes it so you can put an alligator clip in there so it attaches onto a baby headband. This is probably what my sister in law will end up doing. When my niece gets a little bigger I can always make her a cute T-shirt with the same flowers and she can attach the clip seen up above and keep using it. With the strip, it will also be extremely easy to slide onto a harder headband too. This fun clip can grow along with her.

So that's it! A versatile little flower for my little niece!

To go along with her new ruffle bum onesie.

Yes, it seems a little big compared to the newborn onesie, but I've already cleared it through my niece's Momma and she approves!

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