Ring Around The Rosie

Who doesn't love a little fabric rosette?? They have endless uses in home decor and fashion and are thankfully VERY easy to make. After posting my lamp yesterday, I had a bunch of requests for a tutorial on how to make them. They are very simple, but it is easier if you see the process in action, so my friend Carolyn and I whipped up a little video this morning while we made them. Here are some photo steps, and then the video is at the end so you can tie it all together.

Here is what you need:

Glue gun, glue stick, long strip of fabric. It can be any length or width. Use what you have! Old mens shirts work great. Any scrap will do. The longer it is, the larger it will be.

Once you find your fabric, rip it into a strip. You don't have to rip it, but I like the frayed edges.

 

If you notch the fabric, it will rip perfectly straight.

Now make a knot at the end of the fabric. This is going to be the center of your rose.

 All you do now, is twist the fabric tail and then wrap it around the rose. You need to glue it down every 1/2 inch or so. So, twist, glue, wrap (and curse under your breath after the 400th time you burn yourself on the glue).

  

Make sure you are wrapping just around the edge so that it makes a flat rose, not a knot. You can use your fingers to flatten it a bit as you go.

See how we are twisting the fabric, then gluing the twist to the side of the knot?

Continue twisting, wrapping, and gluing until it's finished. Don't aim for perfection, because "perfect" roses don't look half as good as the imperfect ones. Depending on how tight you twist and wrap, the rose will take on whole new looks. Sometimes I do tight ones, other times I do looser ones. You can mix it up a bit while you do one.

Sometimes the back ends up looking nicer than the front!

If you use a lightweight fabric and you want to mount it onto something flat, or say, on a headband, you can cut a piece of felt in a circle and glue it onto the back of the rose to make it a bit more sturdy and easier to glue. This fabric was leftover home dec weight, so it is very rigid already and didn't need it.

Here is the short video clip with us in action. Don't mind the kids being wack-a-doodle in the background! They were having fun while we crafted in the kitchen.

Cute huh? Easy right? You really can't do it wrong either. The great thing is, there are endless uses for these! Make some large ones and mix in smaller ones and make a wreath, embellish a lamp, a basket, a headband, hair clips, picture frames....endless ideas here. I always like to do an odd number in a grouping, so 3/5/7 in a group. I think these two will look perfect with a blue one. Or gray. Or white! I don't know yet, but I'm sure I'll come up with something fun.

Now go try your hand at it!

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