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The winner of the Violet's Buds 1st Anniversary Giveaway is...

Jessica McMasters

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Project #2 Ruched Ribbon Zinnia flower

This week's project was to test out the tutorial on making a ruched flower. I originally found this pin, which lead me to the tutorial by Rushbrooke Strand.
I adapted the instructions slightly, and used ribbon so I could skip the step of folding the strip of material.
I started out with a 40" piece of 1" wide ribbon. The only other materials I needed were a needle, thread & scissors. I also used a circle of felt & hot glue gun to finish the flower & make it a hair clip.

 

If you like, you can draw lines at 90* angles down the strip (zig zag). I skipped this step and just eyeballed the angle while I stitched.

I started by folding under the end of the ribbon and making a running stitch up the side. From that corner, I made a running stitch at a 45* angle. When I got to the edge, I made a 90* turn and stitched to the next edge.

 After making a few passes, I pulled the thread tight, making ruched petals. The original tutorial said to curl the ribbon as you go, and use a second needle to stitch it into place. I found this difficult and decided to stitch the entire ribbon before curling it into a flower.

When I got to the end of the ribbon, I knotted off the thread. I curled the ribbon around and stitched it in a few places to hold it in place, tucking the ends underneath so you won't see an unfinished edge. Since I'm using these for hair clips, I then secured the flower to a felt circle using hot glue. Of course, you could sew this onto a shirt, or make a lapel pin with it.
Here's my finished flower clip, its about 3.5" in diameter. Let me know what you think!

I will warn you, this process is pretty time consuming, but it was fun project to do while watching tv in the evening with my hubs. I like this so much, I made them in several different colors, which you can see in my Etsy store, or Violet's Buds Facebook page.
Happy Crafting!