Rose Cuff - A Photo Tutorial

I appreciate that this post will be very photo heavy so I will try my best to keep it as unwordy as possible. The photos should make everything clear, but if you get stuck feel free to either shout at me in the comments or drop me a line at seethewoods at gmail dot com.

I've been making some rose cuffs and after a few requests, I thought it would be easier to just work up a tutorial for the cuff. If you don't know what a rose cuff is, look down ...


Lovely eh?

To make this cuff you will need

• Two pieces of cotton fabric measuring 11 x 5 inches each
• One piece of medium weight, sew in Vilene interfacing measuring 11 x 5 inches
• One piece of bondaweb measuring 11 x 5 inches
• Approx 5 strips of cotton knit jersey (no lycra or elastane % please) measuring approx 12 x 1 inch
• Small piece of wool blend felt in green
• Yarn cut into 5 inch lengths, around 25g of DK will be enough, you'll need more or less depending on whether your yarn is finer or chunkier
• A selection of shank buttons
• One larger button measuring approx 1 inch wide
• Small amount of contrasting yarn
• Regular sewing thread
• Silver embroidery thread

Start off by taking each of the strips of jersey and holding each end tightly, stretch them to their full length. The fabric will roll in on itself encasing the raw edges, don't worry it doesn't unravel or fray.


Sew the Vilene onto the wrong side of one piece of cotton about 1/8 inch from the edge all the way around and set it to one side.


Take the Bondaweb and iron onto the right side of the other piece of cotton and remove the backing paper. Start laying one or two strands of yarn at a time on the cotton. Do a couple of inches at a time and press to hold in place with a hot iron. If you are using an acrylic yarn, retain the backing paper from the Bondaweb and place this over the yarn before pressing to protect it.



Top stitch four straight lines across the full length of the cotton using a short stitch. This will secure all the strands of yarn in place.


Now for the roses. Take one length of jersey and starting at one end coil it around between your thumb and forefinger making sure that the rolled edges of the jersey are on the inside of the coil.

I like to start each cuff with one large central rose. You can check it against the cuff and continue coiling until you're happy with the size.


Snip off any excess jersey and set to one side for smaller buds. Decide which side of your rose will face upwards (one side always looks better than the other) and turn the end of the strip to the underside of the rose.

Fasten the end in place with a few stitches using regular sewing thread and then continue to back stitch across the width of the rose securing each ring of the coil to the one next to it and so on.


Carry on making roses of various sizes and placing them on the cuff until you're happy with the the layout.


Next take the small piece of green felt and cut out a few small leaf shapes, you can make them as big or small as you like. I think five little ones looks nice.


Transfer your rose design off the cuff and starting with the centre rose begin to stitch each rose in place using a sharp needle and the silver embroidery thread*. Draw each stitch quite tight into the jersey. It will pull in sections of the rose giving it more texture and definition making it look more like a rose. Try and catch each ring of the coil with at least 3-4 stitches not forgetting to tuck those little leaves in and secure them with a few stitches too.


Next comes the buttons. Wedge the shank of the buttons down in between the roses and secure in place with regular sewing thread.


You could leave it at that, but I like to add a few stitches in contrasting yarn (I've chosen lambs wool here) in between and around the roses.


Again taking some of the contrasting yarn, make a loop for fastening the cuff by casting 25 sts onto 4mm needles and without knitting any rows, cast the stitches off again. Secure both ends together and trim away the excess yarn.

If knitting isn't your thing you could braid 3 lengths of yarn together or just use a length of cord or ribbon making sure that the loop is large enough to pass your large button through.


Now to pin everything in place. Start by placing the loop with the knotted end sticking out at one end of the right side of the cuff and pin in place. With right sides together continue pinning all the way around. The roses in the centre of the cuff will make it balloon out slightly in the middle but just make sure the edges are matched and pinned and it will all come good.


Sew around the cuff 1/2 inch from the edge, not forgetting to leave a 2 inch gap for turning on the short edge opposite the end with the yarn loop. Stitch back and forth over the yarn loop 2-3 times to secure and back stitch at either side of the turning gap. It can be a bit of a wiggle to turn these and you don't want to start pulling stitches out.

Clip the corners of the cuff, but leave the excess in place around the edges.


Turn the cuff through so that right sides are facing out and press on the reverse with a hot iron. Pin the edges in at the turning gap, pin in place and press again with the iron.


Back to the sewing machine and top stitch along the short edge only to close the turning gap. You can hand sew this closed if you prefer.



Finally wrap the cuff around your wrist and place the large button for fastening. Sew this securely in place on the cuff and you're all done.


Of course if all that is just too much hassle you could treat yourself to a ready made cuff from my shop or, if you can make your way back here again on Friday, I'll be holding a giveaway for this lovely yellow one.

*I like to use silver because the jersey has a bit of sheen to it and even when I use thread which matches perfectly it sticks out like a sore thumb because it reflects the light differently. I figure if the stitches are going to be visible, they might just as well be pretty.