Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Flower Loom Gift Bows

Well, I had nasal surgery in January. It was pretty minor surgery but I couldn't do anything while I was recovering. I couldn't see well (between the surgery and the meds, my vision blurred), so I couldn't read, look at the computer or watch TV. I couldn't see well enough to crochet or knit, so I needed something pretty easy to do that wouldn't take a whole lot of focusing. I popped in some audiobooks on my MP3 and decided to make some bows from curling ribbon. I have had this in my mind for a while and had been putting off experimenting. Well this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try.

I used a flower loom. Mine has 3 different ringed rows of pegs. It is a Studio Twelve Magni-Fleur loom from the 60's or 70's. I've seen similar flowers made out of some kind of plastic straw, but I couldn't find any easily, locally and I couldn't go shopping for supplies. I've made flowers for gift bags out of yarn before, so now was my chance to try out the idea of using curling ribbon.

Basic supplies
2-5 colors curling ribbon
flower loom
scissors
tape (used to hold the beginning ribbon in place on the back while you wrap)
yarn needle
Double sided tape
optional supplies:
ribbon shredder



I tried different techniques for different looks. Some I simply wrapped, finished off the center:



Some I cut the ribbons after I secured the center, but did nothing else to them:





Some I wrapped additional colors around the longest posts, and after securing the centers, I cut the some of the longer loops and used scissors to curl the ribbon:













Some I wrapped the longest pegs, then unwrapped them (I was getting the length of the ribbon I used to wrap the longest set of pegs), used a ribbon shredder to shred the ribbon, the rewrapped the longest pegs. Then wrapped the longest pegs with unshreded ribbon and finished as normal. I left the shredded ribbon in loops but I cut and curled the unshredded ribbon from the longest loops:





Some, I wrapped across 3 of the longest posts. Then wrapped like normal. After is was secured and pulled off the loom, there were really long back loops (the ones wrapped across 3) I cut those in the middle and curled them so that there would be longer curls:



Here are the ones that I did between sleeping and a few other things (I got bored just doing these):



You can see the ribbon I used on the spools in the background, I also took pictures of some other looms that you might be able to make some of these on:



Here is the back of one with the double sided tape on it:



Here is some in use for my son's birthday (I made these in Spiderman colors, LOL):



The thing I like best about these bows, is that they don't get messed up easily like normal gift bows, so you can make a bunch in advance and don't have to worry about them not looking good. They can be stacked and not get smushed and out of shape easily (Unless flattened by something heavy) And they are pretty cheap to make. Those spools of ribbon usually only cost between $2-$3 a piece, so you can just buy the colors you want/need.

I found a really neat site a while back on flower looms, how to use them, what to use on them, etc. http://knitting-and.com/small-looms/index.html

The site has alot of techinques. One thing I didn't see was using curling ribbon with the flower looms. It gives them a different look.

4 comments:

Tracy said...

Super cute and very clever!

BlueCherryFaerie said...

Thanks, they were very easy to make.

Purfylle said...

I am going to have to go and get a loom and try these. I love them.

BlueCherryFaerie said...

I highly recommend it.