Oh You Fancy DIY Corsage Pin

From the first time I caught a glimpse of the new O Magazine Collection for Talbot’s, it really resonated with me.  I’m such a sucker for all of those classic stripes and dots, especially when paired with bright accent pieces. I instantly fell in love with the ribbon & rose corsage pin especially but I was shocked to see the price tag: $40?  Seriously?  Check out my equally great looking DIY version which I was able to piece together in less than 15 minutes and at a cost of less than $5.  Now THAT is a win.

Now granted, one reason this pin is so spendy is that Tablot’s is donating 30% of the net sales for this special collection to Dress for Success, an international non-profit organization that empowers women by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools to help them thrive in work and in life.  Pretty cool, right?  If you’re now feeling like an a-hole for wanting to take the cheapskate’s way out like I did, you can definitely still choose to donate to Dress for Success directly like I did and STILL come out way ahead.

I think the best part of this whole project is that all you need are a few materials you can buy at any craft store and while you *can* sew the base of the pin (i.e. the ribbons) together if you like, you could easily put the entire pin together no-sew with a hot glue gun and it would still turn out beautiful.  Full disclosure:  I did use my sewing machine for the ribbons since my machine is already setup/always ready to go at my crafting station but again, it’s not required.

Here’s What You Need:

• 1 yard 1 1/2″ striped grosgrain ribbon (or pattern of choice)
• 1 forever flower of choice
• 1 bar pin
• Hot glue gun & glue sticks

Instructions:

Start by plugging in your glue gun and cutting 3 lengths of ribbon – 1 with a length of 11.5” and 2 shorter ribbons of equal length, about 6”. If your flower of choice has a stem, you’ll want to cut the stem off as well.

Fold each of the 6” lengths of ribbon in half to form a loop and either sew or hot glue the cut ends together. These will become the diagonal loops of your pin.

Next, form a continuous loop with the 11.5” length of ribbon by bringing the cut end together in the middle and sew or hot glue these in place. This will be the horizontal ribbon on your pin.

Then, position your two shorter length ribbon loops on top of the longer length loop and sew or hot glue together in the middle. I wanted to keep the shape of the shorter length ribbon loops in roughly equivalent diagonals like my inspiration pin but you can position them to your own liking.

Next, use your hot glue glue to to make a circle of hot glue on the back of your flower. Attach your flower to the front of your ribbon corsage and press down lightly to ensure that the flower bonds to the ribbon.

Once this is bonded, flip the corsage over and glue a bar pin to the back as centered as possible.

Note:  *You can really use any artificial flower you like for this project; there is no hard and fast rule! For the 3 flowers pictured, I used one silk dahlia and 2 roses accented with pearls, both from Michael’s.

That’s it – you’re done!  Not only did you save yourself a good $35 by DIY-ing this but you can also play with your choice of ribbon and flowers to design a corsage pin that feels like you.

Please feel free to like, share and/or join in the discussion with comments below to share your own DIY flower corsage pins.  You can also bookmark my page and follow me on Facebook, Instagram and/or Pinterest to stay in the loop with new posts from Suburban AF coming your way every Tuesday.