Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Project: Retro 20s Flower Gone Funky

Everyone's significant others can breathe a sigh of relief today. We are NOT playing with fire!

I got a few new pretties in this week which inspired me to go a little retro funky. Well that and we have a super fab dress from Polka Dot Ponies that I have sorely neglected to make something to equal its poshness. We have had almost spring like weather lately so I thought I better get on that!

This tutorial is a great foundation to play with this look and cater it to your needs. You can make this flower over the top like we did or dress it down for an everyday look.

Here's what we are making! A 20s inspired flower with some extra modern flair!

Supplies:
3/8 ribbon- we used a pink sheer with a satin edge
Large safety pin
Needle
Thread
Glue Gun
Center embellishment
Marabou or curly ostrich (optional)
Felt circle


Take the 3/8 ribbon and wrap it around your 4 fingers 6-7 times.

Using your free hand, slide it off and pinch it together in the center of the loops. Stick your safety pin all the way through the layers.

Pull the inner most loop and start to gentlely spread them out. Play with the loops until you have them arranged the way you want them. Next using your needle and thread and sew through the center of the flower to secure your loops in the desired arrangement. I just ran my needle through a few times. You can tie it if you want but since we are securing the next steps with hot glue I didn't take the time to tie any knots.

This looks pretty nice by itself right here, eh? We could just slap something on the center and call it a day. If you want a more conservative look that’s a good idea. Stop here and attach it to whatever you want. (Hair clip, headband, outfit, hat, or anything else)

Did we stop here?

Of course not! We have an over the top girlie girl to accessorize!

Adding another flower to the top is as simple as just repeat the steps above using 3 fingers to wrap your ribbon.

Glue your two flowers together. On the very top flower we added a single chiffon rose to the center, then added a dazzle dot acrylic stone for some sparkle and shine.

To finish we applied some hot glue to our felt circle and smashed a circle of our 4 inches of curly marabou into it. Add a little more hot glue to the back of your ribbon flower and press onto your marabou puff.

We attached our finished creation onto a headband because the resident diva has been all about elastic glam headbands lately. How she innately senses current adult fashion trends is a bit unnerving!

Gotta hand it to her. It looks great!

7 comments:

  1. Very nice!!!! I like it without all the extra girlie stuff, but will try one of those anyway! lol Is there a particular hot glue that works best with ribbons? Back in the day when I did my daughter's bows (30 years ago!) everything was just sewn by hand. I tried a bow yesterday for my granddaughter and the hot glue just doesn't seem to be super strong. (I was able to pull it apart, so I know my 3 year old granddaughter will pull it apart in no time!)

    Thanks again for sharing your bow!

    maria_m_nestor (at) yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. I suggest using a low temp hot gun and just a lot of glue. We also use the craziest kids we know to product test things. Namely my daughter and one other family friend. If it can survive two different 3 yr olds playing at full tilt for a day then its a win. I would suggest for embelishments that are small like the stone we added on this to use E6000 AND hot glue to set it. The brand of glue sticks i personally love are made by surebonder but in all honestly i dont think they work any better than others i have tried. Its just the brand i always grab :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wendy Wendy this is just too cute!! You know it's on my first to do tomorrow am. I'll share pics if it looks as good as urs does.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thankyou Wendy for sharing. I love the pics and your 'lil beauty' modeling the finished product definitely 'sells' this embellished flower : ))

    ReplyDelete
  5. I can't take it she is super cute and looks sooo fabulous in her fancy unique headband!! LOVE IT GREAT DESIGN

    ReplyDelete
  6. Are you guys going to start carrying the ostrich feathers? They are so hard to find at a good price!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have been so busy with new ribbon designs I haven't had time to source a good cheap source. If you want to email me directly I will pop you the link to where i buy mine for projects :)

    ReplyDelete