When I was taking riding lessons I really, really wanted the chance to compete in a local horse show. Nothing fancy, just something fun. When that chance finally came, it rained, and the show was cancelled. I never quite got over that!
I think part of the appeal was the chance of winning one of those smooth and shiny ribbon rosettes. Horse-crazy girls often dream of the blue ones, but to be honest, I would’ve been happy with anything.
A few years later, I finally got my ribbon, thanks to model horses:
I’ve been wanting to re-create show ribbons in miniature for a long time now. Since some of my horses placed in Blab’s recent photo show, I decided that it was time to figure out how to make them for my models.
Here’s the result! A Champ, Reserve, and 1st through 6th placings. (in America, anyway)
Interested in making one yourself?
I used 1/8 satin ribbon as it was all I had on hand. I bet they would look nice in other widths too.
I wasn’t specific with measuring. Basically, you need to cut three long strips for the tail and eight small strips for the rosette. Mine were about 2cm long.
You also need a circle of paper (I used cardstock as it’s heavier) to build the rosette on. I traced around the lid of a marker.
1: Fold the small pieces of ribbon in half and glue in place. Crimping the edges before gluing helps!
2: You’re going to want to trim down each of these pieces. This will reduce any bulk and tidy up the ends. Folded and cut, mine measured a little more than half a cm long. (eyeballing, woo!)
3: Glue the first four pieces to the circle…
4: … followed by the next four.
5: For the tail, glue two of the long strips together at a slight angle. Glue the third directly on top.
6: Glue the tail to the back of the rosette, with a smaller paper circle on top, to keep things neat.
7: To make a hook for hanging, cut a thin strip of the cardstock, taper one end, and fold. Paper is fragile, but less likely to scratch your models than wire or something. Glue to the back of the rosette.
8: For the center, I cut the heads off of some horse-shaped confetti I found. They’re not completely realistic, but everything else was making me crazy so I just went with it. You could make round medallions out of colored paper, or print up a fancier design if you would like.
9: Glue to the front of the rosette, then trim the tail to whatever length you would like it to be. Treat the ends with Fray Check (or something similar) to prevent fraying, and you’ve got yourself a pretty little show ribbon!
Have fun!
Desktop Stables 
Awesome tutorial, it will be very usefull. And congrats on your wins š
These are adorable!
Those are so cool!
This is fantastic! I’ll definitely be making some for my lot!
Great idea, I don’t know where you get the patience to work so small!
Jenny (aka shadow’s storm)
Awesome tutorial thanks! I’m going to try this!
Wow How you did the center piece is brilliant!
I didn’t know you had such a fun and wonderful website! I’m having such a great time with your tutorials! I am “Fly Masking” and now will be ribbon making today as soon as I get home from work. Thank you for sharing your wonderful work! Everything is so cute and fun to make! Many smiley faces to you! Greetings from Deb in Spokane!
Thanks! I’m happy to hear you’re enjoying them š
I love these! I tried them for Schleich and they work pretty well.
SAME! They really are awesome. I used pipe cleaner instead of paper so it can hang on the bridle. Just fold the end over and there you go! filliefanatic – If you have youtube, there is a really awesome schleich channel (Schleich horse lover 200 OR her other channel is Myia Equestrian, Schleich Spirit, Schleich UK rider, and Daisy stalls) There are a LOT of other schleich channels but those are my personal favorites.
What horse was the one that you used to model the ribbons? Thanks!
It’s a Peter Stone ISH (Ideal Stock Horse) specifically “Andrea’s Answer” which was a run in the early 2000’s I think… š
The Fabri-Tac worked wonderfully and I made several show ribbons that look, well, like show ribbons! The glue was so much fun I made a grosgrain halter for my “model” horse Roy. (Roy was a thrift shop find, a PS ISH –the Millennium Y2K horse– who because he is not a show horse, is called in to “model” for me.) I’m working on the bareback pad girth now and am stopped at the buckles. š These projects help me learn how to manipulate the tools–and forced me to stop and think about what I was doing. Thanks again, Nichelle for helping me learn how to take tiny pieces and make something creative!
Nice! I’ll be looking for more tutorials like this! Thanks! š
This is amazing! I cant do many of the tutorials on here yet as I am still trying to figure out the basics of model horse-ing š This tutorial sounds great! Would love more of these simple, easy projects!
love these ribbons, i tried creating theses but they didn’t turn out as good as yours but i still love this tutorial!
Thanks
Are we able to purchase these from her?
I just made one using paper. It worked okay and I love this tutorial!
holy shit, u have the best website ever, and even though i have schleich and not breyer, i will still followe ur tutorials! ā¤ ā¤ ā¤
Thank you! š
Hello. I will try. Thankās you. Helene
I made a rosette, it came out well. I canāt belive you have your own website. I wish I had mine. š I tried it.
Awww! Tiny show ribbons!