Gathered Ribbon & Ribbon Rosette Tutorials

I wanted to share what I did to add interest to the ribbon and to make the center rosette of the Heartfelt Flower card posted earlier today. I've seen a lot of beautiful ribbons lately that are slightly gathered & I love that look. I've purchased one or two, but needed black today so decided I'd just make my own!

Gathered Ribbon Tutorial
I used an inexpensive 5/8" black sheer ribbon approximately 11" long to go with my pink/black theme.
I simply centered the cut ribbon strip under the presser foot on my beloved old Singer sewing machine, set the straight stitch length to 3 1/2", lowered my needle into the center of the ribbon and simply guided it through to the end of the ribbon. A basting stitch would work fine; I went a little smaller here since the ribbon is so sheer. You'd probably want to use the largest stitch available for a tighter-woven ribbon. I'm anxious to try this on other ribbons now!

Next, tie a secure knot in the threads at one end of your ribbon. I always tie a triple knot; I don't want it to come undone in the process of finishing whatever I'm working on!

Then simply begin gathering by pulling the top thread only from the untied end of the ribbon. The thread should pull easily. You may gather it as tightly or loosely as you prefer; I wanted mine to be only slightly/loosely gathered.

Then simply adjust your gathers by pushing them along the ribbon as evenly as you wish to from end to end.

When I had it gathered as I wished, I simply secured the ribbon end to the back side of my cream linen paper strip on the right edge with a big glue dot and then again on the left edge.

That's all there is to it!

Ribbon Rosette Tutorial:

As I was gathering my ribbon I realized that if I gathered it very tightly, it would curl up and form into a rosette. I decided it would make an awesome center for my bleached flower, but I needed a narrower ribbon for this flower. I took a 2 1/2" piece of 3/8" black sheer ribbon & simply stitched, tied and gathered it just as I'd done it above, only very tightly, forming the rosette. I then tied both ends tightly together, snipped the threads and used a couple of glue dots to secure the rosette & threads so they wouldn't show & popped it onto my flower center!

Here's the finished card again; if you have any questions, please leave a comment & ask. I'll be glad to try to help you!