Zip it, zip it goooood ...

 Blogtoberfest (Day15)

 Yesterday I was in the city with my daughter and it seemed everywhere we looked we saw jewellery with roses made of zips. Sadly, they were mostly pretty shoddy - to the point that some of the zips were not even real! I still think this is a cool idea so I decided to have a bash at making my own version. This is what I  made.

A necklace just right for Spring, with 4 "zip roses". This is what they look like close-up ...

I would like to try and share my method with you,so here goes ...
You will need a zip (duh!) - I used op-shop ones but you could buy new ones too. Now, the length of the zip determines the size of the rose. In the necklace the green and pink zips were shorties, the black one too but the orange one was quite long - probably about 35cms. Also, thread up your needle with matching thread before you start.

This is a lovely long one that I had lurking about - I am partial to the way the metal teeth look in the finished rose. Ok, so once you have selected your zip, you need to snip off the end with the stopper and remove the bit you use to close the zip.

Split the zip in half - you only use one half at a time and can join the other half on later if you decide to make the rose bigger.

Now you need to do a little folding manouvre. Fold down the top edge to create a triangle as shown below.

Then, you need to fold it over again to form a nice neat end.

Pinch the bit you have just folded together and start to roll it up, creating the centre of the rose.

To secure the roll, push the needle through the centre from one side to the other.

You can go through a couple of times to make it really secure. Once you are satified that it isn't going to unroll, start to sew a running stitch along the bottom edge.

Stop after a couple of centimeters and gather the stitches up. Secure to the centre roll by pushing the needle from one side to the other.Continue like this, gradually increasing the size of the gathering stitch and securing to the petals rather than the centre - the flower will want to turn in on itself so you need to be vigilant and add a few stitches to keep it in place.

 Nearly done! Once the whole length of the zip has been gathered up, simply finish off with a few stitches - you may see a few gaps in the petals - just catch them to another petal.

Voila!

 
I haven't decided what I will do with this one yet - probably a necklace or maybe attached to a cuff ? I hope the instructions make sense and that you get to make one for yourself!