Curly Ribbon Hair Pretties

LINK TO MY PINSPIRATION

MY OWN PINSPIRED CREATION

I decided to make Princess Lollipop curly ribbons for school, in school colours. I used some 10mm green gingham ribbon, 5mm plain white ribbon and 5mm plain green ribbon. As instructed in the above pin, I wrapped all my ribbon tightly round my dowelling rods and cooked it in the oven at 135 degrees C, for 25 minutes. Princess Lollipop looked at me very strangely when I told her I was cooking ribbons "Can I eat it?" was her eventual puzzled response lol.

I took them out of the oven after 25 mins, and let them cool for about an hour before checking if they were cool enough to work with. Then there was the "oh my gosh will it have worked?" moment when I started to take the ribbon off the dowels!! And it DID :-) I showed off my ribbon worms to Mr Messy, and played boinging them too :-) I couldn't believe it had worked so well :-)

I cut the curly ribbon into roughly 3 inch lengths and then split them into two equal groups. I centred the groups of ribbon one at a time, on a long piece of dental floss and gathered them up and tied a knot. I then got Mr Messy to hold the bunches of ribbons at either side of the knot and wound the dental floss round and round, tying knots every now and again to secure it and finishing with a tightly tied knot. I cut a circle of felt and covered it in hot glue, then put it between the teeth of the hair clip, added a bit more hot glue and pressed the bows onto the felt. The glue holds really securely and I don't think even my rambuctious 3 year old will pull it apart easily :-)

MY VERDICT

I think they are great for a first try, and aren't too overwhelming to wear to school.

PRINCESS LOLLIPOP'S VERDICT

At first she didn't want to wear them, but now she won't take them off :-)

WHAT I'D DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME

The length of the ribbons is right (for school clips), but they aren't as full as I'd like, so I think I'll have to make one clip at a time, or double my number of dowel rods to make two at once. And for clips to wear out of school I think I'd make the ribbon lengths longer too, so I'd definitely only be able to make one at once.

UPDATE
After wearing for a few months the ribbon wasn't holding its curl very well, and one of the clips was very loose and almost falling apart.  I've checked on craft forums and found people recommending using starch. 

Method One:  Soak in liquid starch, or spray with starch then bake.
Method Two:  Bake and then spray when still hot from the oven.
Method Three:  Either of the above, but use hairspray instead of starch.
Method Four:  Soak the ribbon with water, then spray with starch

I've also read various different time/temperature variations:
100 degrees C for 45 minutes
120 degrees C for 30 minutes
135 degrees C for 15 minutes

The other tip I've found is to use very strong thread and sew the ribbons together in the centre with a single stitch, before gluing the ribbons to the clip.