I was so inspired by the organza flowers from Reese Dixon, I went and made my own flowers last night. I’ve been struggling with rolled roses for a long time. The Vogue pattern I was using called for cutting a strip of fabric, folding it lengthwise and sewing it closed so the folded edge is the petal edge. I didn’t like that method because they are too thick and fake looking.
So last night I cut 45″ x 2″ long strips from some gradiated olive/plum chiffon that I had and I melted the edges with a candle flame like she did at Reese Dixon. Then I gathered one edge, rolled the strip and hand sewed in place. I love how these turned out – see the photo of my roses below. I found that gathering to 17″ length gave me the open roses and gathering to more like 24″ gave the more closed versions. I have no plans to sell the roses like this, but I may be embellishing my DuhBe clothes with them soon. And I want flowers in my hair too.
January 13th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
hola me encanto mucho mucho tus tutoriales sobre todo este de las rosas, quedan preciosas, cuando haga una te cuento como me quedo. lo mejor fue poder traducirlo graciassssssss y felicitaciones
January 20th, 2010 at 5:58 am
hi,love your tutoral, l have been make roses the same wy as you for many ywaers, but l make mine with ribbon, wired taffeta is best, or with satin, both burn easy, the wired ones make it easy to gather, or l sew by hand to gather as well, as l am in Australia, we are limited with the ribbons, so am still trying to find some cheap taffeta ,is the best,
keep up the good work,loved reading your DIY’s
Ciao, Jan in Au
January 20th, 2010 at 6:01 am
hi Again, forgot to mention, l also dye my own ribbons,can buy cheaper l know,but great fun,
Ciao, Jan in Au
January 24th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Thank you so much for this!!! I had to go out and buy fabric right away to do this.
I love, love, love incorporating flowers into my DIY’s as well– you can see them on my blog. 
February 16th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Absolutely love these gorgeous roses! What do you use to hand tint/dye the roses? I would like to use something that won’t make a big mess, LOL!
I am new to flower making, and just ordered a ton of ribbon and stamens for the centers.
Great Job! xoxo Barbara
February 22nd, 2010 at 1:23 pm
Hi Barbara, I actually didn’t tint these myself – I found an ombre polyester fabric already in these colors. I haven’t experimented with dying polyester yet, but I have considered making dyed silk roses cut in bias strips with frayed edges. I think those would be pretty but I haven’t tried them yet. (of course, silk ribbon would work as well)
April 6th, 2010 at 11:45 am
im making my prom dress and i love how simple and pretty theses roses are, they’re perfect!!!
August 19th, 2010 at 7:00 am
i love the roses, i always wondered about how they did that, i LOVE the flower accents and was googleing chiffon roses to try and find how to buy the rose trim by the yard bolt how ever just the most for the cheapest price and found yours, i have to try it, keep up the beautiful work, IF ANYONE KNOW WHERE TO FIND the chiffon i think they are roses by the yard at wholesale prices would u please email me at prissywills@yahoo.com, meme to 8 grandbabies and loving it, they just keep me so busy sewing. lol