How to Make Flower Hair Clips

I have been asked many a time how I make my baby girl's flower clips... So here is how I make them:

I went to the beauty supply store and bought a package of what I call "alligator clips." I modified my clips using pliers and wire-cutters:

(Top: before

Bottom: after)

I cut the clip length because I didn't want it to stick out underneath the flower. I bent the upper part of each clip's "mouth" to be parallel with the bottom, so it would grip her hair better. 

I covered the metal clips with ribbon using hot glue. This is a little tricky, because you have to use one hand to keep the clip open, and work quickly to place the ribbon before the glue hardens. You also want to avoid the ribbon going too crooked... also avoid gluing the clip shut :) 

(This is what my ribbon-covered clip looked like)

I bought fabric flowers, so I got them ready them for attaching them to the clips. I pulled the flowers off the stems... but some had little plastic shapers inside, so I removed those too.

(This plastic needs to be removed to work well for our purposes.)

The fabric flowers have lots of layers of fabric. To keep them from fluttering around, but mostly to avoid having to glue each individual layer, I stitched the layers together with a needle and thread. (I did a few on the sewing machine... but I got frustrated trying to control all the variables on the machine in such a teeny area.)

(The backside of my stitched flower)

I bought tiny buttons, and using my wire-cutters, I nipped off the loops on the back. Then I glued the buttons in the center of my flowers:

My last step was gluing flowers to their ribbon-covered clips: Ta-Da!

(Side view of the finished product...)

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(September 29, 2010. Eva is just over 4 months old)

(I clipped these flowers to headbands when she had too little hair to hold the clips :)

ADORABLE.