ribbon roses

My oldest daughter (by 1/2 hour of her twin sister) is getting married in 2 weeks.
We are all so excited, it's hard to contain the happy atmosphere that surrounds her right now.
You can't help but smile when you see her face.

I did a lot for her sister's wedding back in 2004 (happy anniversary Bets!, eight years, whoa!)
from bouquets to table decorations, etc., but this time I am living 4 hours away. And it's not MY show.
It's tough to let other people take over, and I feel like I'm in the "outer" circle for the first time and being the mother of the bride, I have learned to just let it go.  Hard? yes.   Impossible? no.
Danzy, this effort is for you!

I did snag the flower job: bouquets, boutonnieres & corsages. So I have to revisit my previous job of choosing flowers, buying flowers, wiring flowers, preparing flowers, making flowers, then cooling off flowers three days ahead of time so they don't wilt and all my effort is for naught! Ah, the pressure!

Well, Dana showed me a quick and easy way to make little ribbon flowers. So this week's project is:

Ribbon Flowers

You will need:
satin ribbon, 3/4" - 1" wide
needle and thread

I used a different width of ribbon for demo to make it easier to view:

take about 24" of ribbon and toward the middle make a right angle fold. You will then fold the 'bottom' ribbon over this fold. You will continue with the other side until you have folded about 10 times.

You will be folding (at right angles) over the previous fold.

When you have your ten folds, pinch the corner of the bundle and let go of the top side (right hand side)

The ribbon bundle will pop out, but just keep pinching tightly so the whole thing doesn't fall apart, and with your free (right) hand pull gently the ribbon that is hanging down.

The rose should start to bunch up and start forming a flower shape. If this doesn't work to your satisfaction, just unravel and start again.

Some ribbons work better than others, and some widths work better than others. We tried with the 2" demo ribbon in the beginning, and it was too big to form a nice rose.

Once you have a nice rose shape, take your needle and thread and sew the bottom ribbon part together so it doesn't unravel.

tip of the day:
If you want to keep your towels as dry as possible, (perhaps you live a moist climate and have trouble drying things out)  try this tip:
Use a small washcloth in the shower (or bath) after you are finished and wipe off with this small towel first. After you have blotted down you will be surpised how much water you can squeeze out of this little washcloth. So think of all this moisture going into your bath towels that have to struggle to dry out.
My hubby gave me this tip, cuz in the army they gave the guys a little washcloth and one SMALL towel.

That's all for this week!
:D