living on the crafty side of life

ribbons galore custom order: luggage tags | key rings

Recently I received a request to make 25 luggage tags, in the same style as the ribbon key rings I make and sell over at Ribbons Galore. They were for a tour group which I assume are travelling to Japan (my assumption based purely on the ribbon chosen for these tags).

I love making custom orders, the more in the order the merrier, cause I set myself up a little production line, completing one task at a time.

First task with these tags was to cut the cotton webbing and the ribbon into pieces and have them stacked next to my sewing machine. Then the ribbon is stitched to the webbing.

A little tip: when I'm stitching a polyester ribbon to cotton webbing (or cotton fabric for that matter), I always iron the ribbon with a warm iron (not hot). There is usually a little shrinkage with polyester ribbons, and by ironing them now (before you sew), you avoid the ribbon puckering once sewn to it's cotton base.

Each piece of webbing/ribbon is then folded in half so I can sew the two raw edges together. I add this step into the process so both ends of the webbing stay in place once the metal end is clamped. You see, the metal clamp has "teeth" on one side only. When the metal end is clamped only one side of the webbing is held with these teeth. By stitching the two ends together, you are making a more secure key ring or tag. And I speak from experience, one of the first key rings I made did not last very long, one side of the webbing pulled out of the metal end. Since sewing the two ends together, the key rings have stayed in place!

Next step, and this is an optional one, but I really like to be sure that my key rings will stay in tact. I like to glue the webbing ends to the metal end. I use a strong glue.

Then leave them to dry a little.

Time for clamping, this is the part where you close the metal end around the webbing ends. I always clamp these as tight as possible.

Once that is done, the split rings are added and you're finished.

I had a 24 hour turnaround for these, they had to be packed up and on the plane to Hong Kong (well at least in the hands of Australia Post) one day after receiving the order. I made it, and they were on their way in time.

Would love to see what they all looked like on the luggage as a group.

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona

PS: the ribbon used is the gorgeous miss ling on grey ribbon, available from Ribbons Galore. Webbing and key fob hardware available also from Ribbons Galore.

 

Happy Easter from Ribbons Galore [and a 10% discount coupon]

Wishing you a happy Easter. If you fancy a little ribbon shopping over the Easter long weekend, here's a 10% discount coupon for you to use.

You can redeem this coupon during checkout. Just enter the code in the box provided, and click on the redeem button.

[ETA: the sale has now finished, thanks to all who visited Ribbons Galore during this time].

The coupon code is: HappyEaster2012

The coupon is valid between 04/04/2012 and 11/04/2012 (Australian time).

Coupon is valid for in store items only and is not available for special orders.

We look forward to you visiting Ribbons Galore

Cheers

Fiona

Ribbons Galore 

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easter buckets waiting to be filled

With Easter only a few weeks away, its time to start decorating some little buckets ready for some little chocolately eggs.

I've recently started stocking some very cute baby pom pom trim at Ribbons Galore, these trims seem to suit some Easter crafting perfectly. 

I've just used some glue to stick the pom pom trim and ribbon in place on the buckets.

And finished decorating them with some little grosgrain bows (also at Ribbons Galore).

Now we're ready for a little Easter egg hunt :)

Thanks for visiting...

Cheers

Fiona

ribbons galore photography

Yesterday I spent an enjoyable afternoon in my little studio photographing lots of new ribbons for Ribbons Galore. I'm loving my new props, these vintage wooden bobbins which I bought last year from Europe. Here's a few favourite photos from the session...

The ribbons will be on the Ribbons Galore website next week... I'm busy added them to the website at the moment :)

Have a good weekend.

Cheers

Fiona x

ribbons galore in better homes and gardens magazine

I returned from our January holiday to find a couple of my handmade key rings in the Better Homes and Gardens magazine (the Australian February 2012 edition).

About six months ago I was asked to make several key rings in a few different summery colour ways. It was great to open up the magazine and see which key rings were chosen {the birdy ribbon is one of my favourites}.

All the cotton webbing and key fob hardware are available at Ribbons Galore. They are a very easy project to make.

Handmade ribbon key rings are also available in the handmade section on the Ribbons Galore website. 

Cheers

Fiona x

 

Christmas 2011

One last Christmas project for this year. I've made a new large Christmas wreath.

This large wreath has ribbon knotted around the large metal ring. 

With large jingle bells hung down in the middle of the wreath.

Another Ribbons Galore newsletter is now available to read with lots of new ribbons added to the store recently:

Ribbons Galore is now closed for a summer break. I'll be re-opening in January 2012.

To my blog readers and Ribbons Galore customers, I wish you a merry Christmas and a safe, happy and healthy 2012.

Cheers

Fiona x

christmas mini wreaths decorations intructions

I've received a few questions about the Christmas wreaths I made in my last post. Here's a few instructions, hope they help.

If you would like to make some of these weaths, I have kits available. They have the supplies to make 3 wreaths (3 rings, 3 jingle bells - one of each size, ribbon, bows and baker's twine). All you will need is the hot glue gun or other adhesive to attach the bows. The kits are $16.00, plus postage (Australia only). Send me a message or email if you would like a kit, and let me know what ribbon colours you would like, and I'll put the kit together for you.

Here's the instructions:

Start with knotting the ribbon around the ring like below. Halve the length of ribbon and place under the ring, bring the left side over the ring, the right side over the left ribbon and under the ring and through.

Tie each knot firmly. Then keep knotting around the ring as above. If you know macrame knots this one is the half square knot which gives the twisted effect, BUT you must keep the knots exactly the same all the way round.

Continue until you meet up with the starting point....

Thread one of the ribbon ends through the bell....

This is the step you can choose which way the bell hangs, down under the wreath....

...or in the middle of the wreath....

Loop the string or bakers twine around the ring, this is the hanging part of the wreath...

Tie a double knot to hold the bell in place....

Trim the excess lengths of ribbon from the knot....

Add the bows front and back. I used a hot glue gun to attach the bows. Adding the bows is not only decorative, but it helps hide the knotted ends of the wreath and holds this all in place...

Hope you enjoy making these :) Ribbons and bows are from Ribbons Galore (www.ribbonsgalore.com.au).

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x

christmas mini wreath decorations

I've been making more Christmas decorations, this time, mini Christmas wreaths.

They are similar to mini macrame Christmas wreaths I used to make as a kid, I've just used grosgrain ribbon instead of macrame cord.

I've tied grosgrain ribbon around a metal ring using a half square knots, and added large jingle bells and grosgrain bows to embellish the mini wreaths.

And I've used a short length of bakers twine to hang each of them up.

I sold my first hand made items at the age of 10 to a gift shop in Mudgee. These hand made items were all little macrame Christmas decorations. One of the decorations was very similar to these modern-day ribbon macrame Christmas wreaths.

These are very easy to make... a great Christmas activity for the kids too.

Cheers

Fiona x

christmas star decorations

There's a traditional Danish Christmas craft of making flettede stjerner from paper. These stars make such beautiful Christmas decorations and are made at Christmas time by children and adults.

When I saw them I thought they'd look pretty made from ribbon, so I set about translating instructions, cutting and folding ribbon as you would the traditionally used paper.

Here's the results, lovely ribbon stars ready to hang on the Christmas tree...

I found through trial and error that you need to use a stiff or firm ribbon, rather than the softer ribbons. The striped grosgrain I have at Ribbons Galore worked perfectly.

When I'd finished folding the stars, I ironed the edges lightly to hold the ribbon in place. You could also use a little fusible webbing inside the folded edges to hold the ribbon. I then threaded bakers twine through the stars so they could hand on the tree.

This is a side view of the star...

So now for a few instructions. I found some instructions that were mainly in Danish, but use google translate, and you'll work these out. Here they are:

Flettede stjerner, this is the instruction sheet I used, it in a pdf format.

Flettet stjerne instructions on julidannevang.dk

Sofie Legarth shares how to make fabric flettet stjerne in her blog post.

Hope you enjoy making some yourself for Christmas.

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Fiona x

key rings at the ERYLDENE christmas fair

I have a friend who will be a stall holder at the Eryldene Christmas Fair this weekend here in Sydney (Saturday & Sunday 26 & 27 November, 2011).

She will be selling some of my Ribbons Galore handmade key rings amongst all her other lovely goodies.

New key rings are also available on the Ribbons Galore website, great teacher's gift or Christmas present :)

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x