Grosgrain Ribbon Flowers & a Festive Pillow

I recently decided to find a use for a roll of burgundy grosgrain ribbon, leftover from a past project, that has just been sitting in my ribbon box without a purpose.  It was a great Christmas color and so I thought I'd try to come up with a way to use it.  The project I initially bought it for only required about 2 feet of the 7 yards, so there was plenty left to create with.  And as luck would have it, I even had some burgundy fabric stashed away that matched exactly.  I bought the fabric for pillows, but had never gotten around to making them.  Perfect!!

I thought flowers would be fun, so after a little research and experimenting, I was able to make two kinds of flowers.  One is a very easy flower to make, but the other did require a little more patience and finger dexterity.

Supplies needed:
Grosgrain ribbon (I used 3/4" wide)
Matching thread & a needle
Beads or buttons for center of flower

Easy Flower
1.  Cut about a 6 inch piece of ribbon for each flower and with the thread and needle, sew a running stitch down the length of the entire ribbon.  (A running stitch is simply sewing up and down, spacing evenly as possible)

2.  Leaving about 1" of thread at the knotted end extending out of the ribbon, pull the other end of  thread tight to gather the ribbon together.

 3.  Tie the two ends of thread together, pulling as tight as possible.  The tighter, the better or your flower will come ungathered. (Is that even a word?  Spell check it telling me it isn't!)  You also might want to stitch the two ends of ribbon together so the raw ends are on what will be the wrong side of the flower.  This will help the flower look more finished.

4.  There is a hole in the center that needs some attention.  I added pearls to cover it up.  You could add other beads or a button, depending on what style you are after.  Not too hard, right?!

Grosgrain Rose

1.  Cut about 4-6" of ribbon, depending on how big & full you want your flower.  Fold the ribbon in half, lengthwise.  Start rolling the ribbon, about 2 times, to make the center of the rose.  Stitch through the entire roll a couple of times to secure it.

2.  Keeping the ribbon folded in half, twist and roll around the center, making sure to stitch often to secure it.  Try to vary the side of ribbon that is on top as you twist.  Sometimes the folded side is up and sometimes the two edges are up.  Try to keep the bottom as flat as possible.  This will take some practice!!  :)  It will get easier to make the rolls look like rose petals, the more you do it.

3.  Keep rolling and twisting and shaping the ribbon.  Stitch through the bottom of the entire rose to keep it together.  Leave about 1/2" or less of ribbon at the end to fold over the bottom of the flower.  Stitch in place.

I sewed both flowers together on the pillow I made of the matching fabric.  They would also make fun hair accessories.  My roll of ribbon made a total of about 30 flowers and roses.