Mrs. No-No Knows: Ribbon Bows!

I recently bought this outfit for Miss NoNo that I thought she would love - - it's matching shorts and a shirt. The shirt has matching buttons and a ruffle down the middle and the shorts have a tuxedo pant-like strip down the sides that is sparkly. I really did think that she would like it - and it's her favorite color. HOWEVER, she pretty much refused to wear it...I brought it out every.single.day one week and every.single.time she said that she didn't like it and she wanted to wear something else.
...Enter the pink ribbon bows....

I got this ribbon and the buttons from JoAnn Fabrics. I had Miss NoNo help pick out the ribbon colors and the buttons and then we went home and got started! We bought a lot so that we could make a bunch and get her excited about putting the ribbon bows (flowers) on all of her clothes, if we needed to!!

I cut the ribbon to about 17 or 18 inches to make the bows. Then I took it out about one inch and folded it back in on itself. Where it comes together (in between my thumb and fingers) will be the center of the bow.

Make another loop on the other side - the same way as the first - take it out about one inch and then fold it back to join the 'center'.

Continue creating loops, alternating sides, until you have the desired numbers of 'petals' for your flowers. I did four loops per side for eight loops total.

Pinch all the loops together and check the distance of each loop. The individual loops should all be about even.

Insert a threaded needle through the 'center' of your flower.

Before pushing the needle all the way through the first time, fan out the 'petals' until they are about equal distance from each other (once you start sewing, you won't be able to adjust the placement).

Using the needle, pull the thread through a couple of times in each direction to secure your new 'flower'. At this point, you could trim the extra piece of ribbon (the remnant) just to clean it up, but I left as is.

Place the flower on whatever garment you want to attach it to. Run your thread through the center of the flower and the garment a couple of times in each direction to secure it. At this point, you don't have to worry about how the thread looks because you will be covering up the stitches with a button in the next step.

This is how the flower looks sewn on to Miss NoNo's shorts.

Place the button in the center of the flower and, using your threaded needle, run the thread through the button, through the flower, and through the garment. Do this a couple of times to secure the button to the flower.