These Pinwheel Ribbon Sculptures are so cute and easy to do. You can create so many different looks from just one ribbon.
– Pinwheel Ribbon Sculpture Tutorial –
Supplies:
4 Ribbon Right Triangles heat sealed in 4th of July Stripes or any other ribbon.
Felt
Button and Needle & Thread OR Gem and Glue
Hot Glue
*See bottom of tutorial on tips for making the triangles.
Start by gluing the triangles to the piece of felt.
Just use a dab of hot glue on the right angle side of the triangle as shown.
Continue gluing each triangle to the felt until you have all of them in place. Ideally, it would form a perfect square but I’ve found that ribbon is rarely manipulated into perfect geometrical shapes (and sometimes it can be downright uncooperative. :)), but don’t worry! You’ll never notice on the finished project, and if you do, its so easy to make another!
This is another way to do it, cut a square out of wide ribbon and cut slits into it like the below picture. Almost forming an X but leaving a small square in the middle. Either way, keep going to the next step.
Begin folding in the pinwheel shape. Start with one corner of one of the triangles and fold it in so that the tip points at the center and glue just the tip down.
Continue folding and gluing every other tip of the triangles until each of the four triangles have one corner folded in. It is not important if you have visible glue marks in the center of the pinwheel, it can be messy since it will be covered by a button or gem!
Almost finished! Just have to embellish!
Attach the button by starting the needle at the back of the pinwheel.
Finish attaching the button by threading back through and tie on the backside where it will be hidden!
Now, just attach to a clip, pin or headband and you’re done! Or make a bunch and attach to a fun wreath! The possibilities are endless!
Once you start, you won’t be able to stop, many possible patterns, colors and styles to be made.
And with this one ribbon, 4th of July Stripes, I was able to do the above ;three different and totally adorable pinwheels!
And I LOVE all the Preppy Stripes ribbon like the beautiful “beach blanket” color below… perfect for Summer!
Here is a tip on how to get close to perfect triangles with ribbon –
Enjoy!
~Laura for Ryann & Riley
Thank you Laura!
Laura has beautiful products and is so creative. To see more of her products, visit Ryann & Riley. You will find amazing ribbon sculptures, bows, and so much more.
To see more of our 4th of July ribbon, click on the link. We also have awesome 4th of July ribbon mixes as well.
If you have great tutorials and a fun idea you would like to share on The Ribbon Retreat Blog,
please submit a project.
Have a wonderful day!
15 Comments
So fun working with TRR on submitting and creating blog posts. Shirley is the best and makes sharing my love for ribbon so easy! Thanks for having me!
How does one “heat seal” ribbon? Thanks! 🙂 Can’t wait to try these!!!
Hi Christine! You can heat seal ribbon by using a lighter or flame from a candle. You can also use a wood burning tool. We have a video tutorial on how to do this if seeing it will help. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJTMNS5T1HE&feature=g-all-u. Good luck! 🙂 – Shirley
How wide is this ribbon and where do u get it without wire in it?
Hi Tiffany! This ribbon is 1 1/2″. You can get tons of ribbon here on The Ribbon Retreat. Here is the link for the 4th of July Stripe ribbon used – http://www.theribbonretreat.com/Ribbon/4th-of-july-stripes.aspx. – Shirley 🙂
Awesome Thanks!!!! 😀
How big is each triangle suppose to be?
Hi Renee! It depends on the width of your ribbon. This particular ribbon is 1 1/2″ so you make you triangles based on that. Hope this helps! – Shirley
Yours look so much bigger then mine turned out and I followed the triangle pattern 🙁 Is yours only 2″ x 2″ ?
Hi Tami! The pinwheel should be around 3 inches if you use 1.5 inch ribbon to make the triangles. They may need to experiment a little. The wider the ribbon and bigger the triangles the larger the pinwheel! Hope this helps! – Laura
so,so cute will have to make y grand daughters some of these
Hi, can you make it bigger in any way buy joining two pieces of ribbon together as you carnt buy really wide ribbon. Llove it but want to make it look even bigger or adding some thing in back ground. Thanks
Hi Chris! Thank you so much for your question! One idea that we have is using Fusible Web to stick your ribbons together to make a larger bow! We haven’t ever tried that method in a way like this, but when we have used Fusible Web to adhere ribbons on top of each other, it works amazing! I hope this helps. Good luck and let us know how it goes! Thank you again Chris! Michelle 🙂
Does this only work on ribbon that is two sided? All my 1.5 ribbon is one sided. Not sure how to make this work.
Hi Missy! Thank you for your question. No, you don’t have to only use 2 sided ribbon to create this fun bow. In this Pinwheel Ribbon Sculpture video tutorial, Shirley used 1 sided ribbon to create her Pinwheel and it looks amazing! You can find that tutorial HERE! I hope this helps! Thank you again and have a wonderful day! Michelle 🙂