Pretty Pleated Flower tutorial

I have been inspired by the many cute hair accessories I see all around me and I wanted one for myself.  This is definitely not your little girl's hair bow!  This is for you!  I love this and try to wear it whenever possible.  This tutorial will include a tutorial for the entire green, ribbon flower and a tutorial for finishing off the gold rosette.  I will link to my good friend, Shannon, for the tutorial on the actual rosette.

Here are the supplies used, but you can get creative and use whatever you wish!  By no means, is this the only way to do this flower.  This is just how I did it.  Also, my estimations for the length of the ribbons are a bit longer than what was actually needed.  I just cut my ribbon at these lengths and removed the excess if there was any.

Supplies:

3 yds of 7/8 inch ribbon (Green)

7 inches of 3/4 inch Faux pearls on lace (cream lace)

one medium sized magenta bead

1 yd of 5/8 inch Gold ribbon (gold rose)

1 yd of 3/8 inch ribbon (black polka dot)

1 yd of 7/8 inch sheer ribbon (black)

white thread

needle

2 in diameter felt circle

extra felt

Thread your needle and make a knot at the end.  Begin by making a running stitch along the bottom of your 7/8 inch ribbon.  Space your stitches pretty far apart.  I did mine about 1/4-1/2 inch apart.  This creates more of an accordion style gather, rather than little puckers.

Continue your running stitch until the end of your ribbon.  When you come to the end, slide your ribbon down the thread towards the knot at the beginning, gathering your ribbon.  Does that make sense?  Hopefully!

 

Gather this pretty tightly. Not so tight that you can't slide the ribbon down any further, but pretty tight. You need a little wiggle room!

Once your ribbon is gathered, you need to attempt to flatten it out so that the bottom of the ribbon, where the thread is, is straight.  The ribbon tends to want to twist.  You will need to place your pleats where you want them onto your 2 inch diameter circle of felt.  Take your felt and while placing your pleats on your ribbon, stitch them to the outer edge of your felt.  Continue this completely around your felt until you end up back at the beginning. 

Once you have completed one circle all of the way around, you need to adjust your ribbon down a bit and begin a second layer.     

See how I place my pleats right where I wanted them and then stitched them into place?  Hold them in place with your thumb and stitch...simple, right?

Just keep attaching your ribbon in a spiral until you come to the very middle of your felt.  Don't make the spiral obvious though.  It looks better if you can't tell where you started the next layer.

Once you've reached the middle, just kind of adjust your pleats and stitch wherever it looks good.  Don't be too worried about it because the lace will cover this part up.

You have now completed your first pleated flower and you can knot off your thread!

Here comes the second part of the big pleated flower!  Thread your needle again and knot the end.  Pick up your lace piece and create a running stitch along the edge of your lace.  This one can be a normal stitch length because you want this one to pucker and not pleat.  With my lace, the holes were too big for the knot at the end of my thread so I had to thread it through the middle first and then make my way towards the edge.

Once you come to the end of your lace, gather the same way you did the bigger flower until it comes into a cute little circle, as pictured above. 

Once you have formed your little circle, stitch it to the center of your bigger, pleated flower.

Pick out a bead that you just love and stitch it to the center of your flower.  Tada!  You're done.  This is even pretty by itself so you can quit now if you're tired.  Believe me, I was tempted!

For the next flower you're going to head on over to Shannon's tutorial to make a ribbon rosette.  I picked her tutorial because I wanted to stitch my rosette.  You can also use hot glue, but with living here in AZ, I could easily end up with a hot mess on my head.  I don't trust hot glue lasting in this heat!  Especially when I've been know to leave hair accessories in my VERY hot car.

Make your rosette and set it aside.

Thread your needle again and knot it off.  Pick up your 3/8 inch ribbon and create a 1/4 inch running stitch.  We want the pleated look again.  Continue until you reach the end.

Once you have reached the end slide the ribbon down the thread to gather.  Gather tightly so it appears like an accordion, as pictured above.  Flatten out your accordion ribbon and stitch to the back of your rosette.

This is how the back of your rosette will look.  Stitch the accordion ribbon all of the way around the edge of your rosette.

This is how your rosette will look from the front will appear.  Pretty.  Knot of your thread.

I'm so tired of saying this, but it must be said, thread your needle and knot the end.  Pick up your shear 7/8 inch ribbon and make a running stitch along the edge.  We want this one puckered so don't take as long of stitches.  Continue to the end of your ribbon and slide it down the thread to gather.  Once gathered, stitch this to the back of your rosette so the edges of your sheer ribbon peak out of the polka dot.

Isn't it pretty?

Place the smaller rosette on top of the bigger flower wherever you think it looks best and stitch it into place.

I then cut out a piece of felt that would cover all of my ugly work on the back of my piece and stitched around the edges.  Once that is done, cut out a 1x1.5 inch tab.  Stitch this to the bigger felt piece.  This tab will allow you to either slide the flower onto a headband or onto a clip.  There you have it!  Please let us know if you have any quesitons or if anything seems unclear.