Homecoming Mumsy How To

Many thanks to my cousin Phyllis for showing me how to make a homecoming mum. She was appalled at how much homecoming mums cost, so she and her daughters and their dates would get together before the homecoming football game and make their own.

Their black and gold mums are way over the top, with braided streamers, fancy folded points around the rosettes, and strands of charms. When homecoming was over, the girls hung them on the walls of their rooms.

Here’s a fairly simple version. The streamers are about 30 inches long (about 75 cm). Feel free to tone it down or fancy it up! Either way, start early enough that the glitter and glue will have time to dry before the game. Give yourself at least three days.

You Will Need

• Crocheted Mum, using the “Mumsy” pattern from Crochet Bouquet. Use lightweight yarn. I used a sport weight wool to crochet five tiers of petals.

For the rosette:

• 2 yards each of a 1-1/4″ wide ribbon and a 1/2″ ribbon

For the streamers:

• 1 to 3 yards of ribbon in several different widths, in school colors
• 2 yards of ribbon around 3/8″ wide, in an accent color like black, white, gold, or silver

Some optional decorations:

• 1 to 2 yards of ribbon with footballs printed on it
• 1 to 2 yards of lightweight metallic chain or other novelty trim
• Tiny cowbells or jingle bells

Other supplies:

• Heavy card, like the card at the back of writing tablets
• Fabric glue or hot glue
• Scissors for cutting the card
• Sharp fabric scissors for cutting the ribbon
• No-fray adhesive
• Stapler
• Clothes pins
• Glitter and glue or glitter-glue
• Large safety pin
• A few inches of duct tape

1. Cut ribbon streamers to the desired length. Cut a V-shaped notch at the bottom edge of the wide ribbons. Cut narrow ribbons at an angle. Carefully dab no-fray adhesive along the bottom cut edge of each ribbon.
2. Use glitter glue or glue and glitter to write name, date, school name, or other words on the wide ribbons if desired. Set all these ribbons aside to dry.



3. While they are drying, cut two heavy card circles that are as large as possible, without showing behind the mum. I traced about 1 inch in from the edge of the mum, then took a round plastic lid about the right size and drew around that. Using those two lines as guides, I cut out my circles.
4. Cut 8 to 12 six-inch lengths of the wide and narrow ribbons you bought for the rosette. Center the narrow ribbon on top of the wide ribbon, bring the cut ends together to make a loop, and staple the ends together.



5. Arrange the stapled loops around the edge of one of the card circles, to see how many you will need to go around (I used nine). The stapled ends should overlap the edge of the card by at least one inch. Place the mum on top of the arrangement to see if the spacing is correct. Adjust if necessary and trace just inside the stapled ends so you will know where to put them when you glue them on.
6. Take the loops off the card. Spread glue on the card as shown in the picture, and begin placing loops in the glue. Add glue where the ends overlap. (You can use hot glue for this if you want. Be careful!) Set this aside to dry.



If you haven’t already crocheted the mum, this would be a good time to do it.

7. When the streamers are dry, arrange them on the other card circle, so you can see how they need to be spaced. The way they show when you arrange them on a flat surface is very much how they will show when they are worn. If one ribbon is completely hidden by another, it will mostly stay that way. You’ll need to stagger them, and you may want to balance narrow with wide, balance one color with another. Keep your glittery ribbons near the top of the stack.
8. Once you have the streamers the way you like them, you may want to take a digital photo and print it, so you can refer to it as you work. Otherwise, grab the tops of the ribbons between your palms and flip them over so the ones at the back will now be on top.Now start gluing the streamer tops, face-up, onto the cardboard. Begin with the streamers which are now on top of your stack. Glue the tops about halfway up the card circle. Cluster them toward the middle of the circle, and let them fan out slightly, so that they’re 6 to 8 inches wide at the bottom. Add glue as necessary.
9. Clamp the glued streamer tops against the card with a couple of clothes pins. Let dry.



10. When the rosette is dry, use a strip of duct tape to fasten a large safety pin near the edge of the back of the rosette as shown in the photo (the loops are glued onto the front).
11. When the streamers are dry, place the card circle on the back of the rosette’s card circle, so that the pin is perpendicular to the streamers (the pin should be parallel to the ground, the streamers should hang away from the pin). On the streamer circle, mark the position of the pin’s loop and fastener.



12. Put the rosette down. With scissors, gouge a hole where the pin’s loop was marked. Gouge and cut a larger hole for the pin’s fastener. Put circles back together, threading open pin end through the smaller hole, and the fastener through the larger hole. Do they fit well? If not, enlarge holes.
13. Once the pin fits well into the holes, glue the back of the rosette circle to the front of the streamer circle. No streamer tops should show at the back. They will be sandwiched between the card circles. The pin should look as it does in the picture, except we hope you will be neater than I was.
14. Clamp with clothespins at the edges. Put glue on the front of the rosette, and on the bottom of the crocheted mum. Press the mum in the center of the rosette.
15. Weight the mum with heavy books, or other clean, heavy objects. Let the piece dry overnight. Remove weights and fluff mum’s petals. Tie bells or sew charms onto streamers if desired. Wear to school and to the homecoming game.