How To Make Ribbon Flowers

Making ribbon flowers is a fun and relatively inexpensive hobby. Depending on what kind of flowers you want to make, necessary supplies will likely include ribbon, a needle and thread, a glue gun, scissors, felt, and all sorts of buttons, beads and gems. The difficulty of the flower will also depend on what type you choose to make. Flowers using wired ribbon are generally easier and faster to make than those using basic, wireless ribbon. However, wired ribbon is often more expensive than basic ribbon.

When deciding what type of ribbon flower to make, there are several factors to look at:

What you want to use the flowers for

Do you want to make flowers to add to clips, barrettes and headbands for your daughter or granddaughter? Or maybe you want to make lovely hair accessories for your brides maids? Or perhaps a flower brooch to pin onto your coat in the winter or on a dress in the summer? What you want to use the flower for is going to affect the type and the size of the flower you are going to want. You may want something elegant for yourself but cute for a little girl. Maybe something slightly flamboyant for that party but subtle for work. Figuring out what look you want will help you determine what type of flower to make.

What type of ribbon you want to use

While the two main categories of ribbon are wired ribbon and basic, wireless ribbon, there are so many colors, types, textures and sizes to ribbon. Maybe you want to use satin ribbon for a more formal look or grosgrain ribbon for casual, everyday use. Perhaps you’re trying to clear out that stash of art supplies you have in your closet and want to use that ribbon you bought a while back for something. Maybe you want to make something to match an outfit of yours and already found some ribbon that matches perfectly. Or maybe you bought the cheapest ribbon you could find and want to work from there. While it’s probably easier to choose what flower you want to make and then look for the right materials, sometimes you have to work from the materials up. 

Time and Difficulty

If you’re on a deadline and you need to make 50 flowers for that bridal shower next week, you might not want to choose the most difficult flower to make and lose several hours practicing to get the hang of it. When you’re crafting for fun, this factor is generally not as important, but there are occasions where this must be taken into account.

Whatever ribbon flowers you decide to make, be sure to experiment, add variations to make them your own, and most importantly HAVE FUN!