Making a rosette

Now this surprised me - I'm good with my hands, and thought making a rosette from ribbon would be a piece of cake. Wrong. Turned out it's really difficult to get it neat, symmetrical and the right size. After a couple of goes I looked on Google for help, but failed to find instructions for the right kind of rosette. Martha Stewart's were particularly vague and unhelpful.

In the end I found instructions on how to sew a flounce, and adapted it by ironing box pleats into a 15mm ribbon (using a slip of 8mm card as a guide), hand sewing the edge and then glueing the ends together. You seal the raw edges to stop them unravelling by carefully running a lighter flame along them. I glued the finished rosette to a leather disc.

It's important to use good quality ribbon. Mine was from John Lewis a decade ago. Cheap ribbon is too soft and loose-woven.














I made six pleats to go with the six petals of the brass florette that goes in the centre. It's nailed on to Zaphod's neckstrap with a domed brass nail. If I'd made him a nailed on bridle, he'd have had a smaller rosette on that to match.