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.

 

easter

Easter is just around the corner, well about a month away, so thought I'd list some of my favourite Easter ideas I've made over the last few years.

I've also been adding lots of Easter ideas to my Easter board at Pinterest, if you'd like to see more gorgeous ideas.

Anyway, here's some old favourites.....

Pom pom chicks: (with tutorial) 

Bubble corduroy easter bags (with tutorial):

Little felt easter bags (with tutorial):

EASTER SOFTIES TO MAKE:

eggIE softie: (with pattern and tutorial)

Colourful bunnies:

Soft bunny:

Easter bunny packaging:

Decorating easter eggs:

I'd like to thank the EveryEtsy blog for featuring my pom pom chicks above in their 101 Handmade Easter Craft ideas post. As the name suggests there's 101 crafty ideas for Easter project, well worth taking a look at all the lovely ideas listed.

 

Thanks for visiting. Happy crafting.

Cheers

Fiona

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

 

homespun magazine

Ribbons Galore had some ribbons featured in the Window Shopping pages of the latest Homespun Magazine (July 2011). The whole section featured products with cute reindeer designs, many of them being of the Rudolf variety, for a Christmas in July special.

 
The ribbons featured are the very cute Ruldolf the Red Nosed Reindeer ribbons.

 

They are beautiful quality ribbons, perfect for all your Christmas sewing (even in July). I made a little carry bag/gift bag with the pink Rudolf ribbon last Christmas.

Cheers

Fiona

ribbon fabric

Using some fun ribbons, I made some ribbon "fabric".

All these ribbons are grosgrain style ribbons....

Sewn together with a small zig-zag stitch....

It is now ready to be made into something 'love'ly.

Ribbons from Ribbons Galore ('by my valentine' ribbon collection).

Cheers

Fiona

sewing for Samaritan's Purse

Last week Emily and I visited Samaritan's Purse's office here in Sydney. Emily had sewn skirts and draw-string bags for Samaritan's Purse as her service component of her Duke of Edinburgh, which she had to deliver. These skirts and bags will hopefully be included in some Christmas Child shoe boxes for this year.

She sewed very cute elastic waited skirts, some with rick rack trim along the hems....

While we were out there I collected six empty Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes. My aim is to make something, skirts, bags or toys to fill these boxes ready to send out later in the year. Hopefully my girls will help me a little with this project through the year :) Looking forward to a year of sewing!

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona

welcome 2011

Happy New Year!

We've just returned from a short break in the Hunter Valley which was very relaxing. Now our thoughts are turning to back to school and work over the next couple of weeks... where have the holidays have gone? This afternoon I've raised the hems on a couple of new school uniform dresses and ironed on name labels onto several new uniform pieces. We have one excited 12 year heading off to high school very soon. Covering the text books is one of the next jobs on our list.

As I organise our new uniforms, I've also been sorting out the old ones, the uniforms that have been worn (and filled my laundry) for the past decade. Most have paint stains on them, a sign, I hope, of a little creativity that has been enjoyed by my two gorgeous girls at some time over the last 10 years...

I have some exciting Ribbons Galore news which I really should have shared at the end of 2010 (but due to circumstances beyond my control, last year didn't end as I planned).

Earlier last year I was contacted by the lovely Toni Coward of Make It Perfect. She was interested in using some ribbons for her new project, a new book called "Make it Perfect". A couple of weeks ago I finally bought the book while I was in th city at Kinokuniya (I also bought the latest Cotton Time, I just couldn't resist!). Toni's book is gorgeous. The projects are fun, bright and happy with a mixture of projects/clothes for kids and adults. The patterns are full sized (no need to enlarge) and multi sized.

Here's a couple of pictures of the book...

 

My first project will be an apron from the book. Just trying to pick the right fabric.

Ribbons Galore was also featured in Donna Hay magazine (Dec 2010/Jan 2011 edition).

 

This time of year is normally a time for relaxation, with many families enjoying the school holidays. Unfortunately this is not the case for many, many people across Australia at the moment, not such a happy new year for everyone.

Toni Coward and her sister Carli are co-ordinating fund raising auctions/raffles for those affected by the Queensland floods. I'll be joining in the fund raising effort with a raffle for some Ribbons Galore ribbons. I'll be posting more details in the next couple of days. In the meantime, please visit Toni's blog to read more about this fund raising effort and current auctions. 

Cheers

Fiona

a quick christmas bag

Christmas crafting has been a little lacking this year, so far. There's lots going on for end of school year stuff, including Phoebe's year 6 graduation dinner, which I've been quite involved in. I'll share some of the projects I've been working on for the dinner very soon. 

I did find time a couple of weeks ago to make up this little bag with some gorgeous new ribbon I'm now stocking at Ribbons Galore, rudolf ribbon.

 

This little bag is going into our shoe box for the Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child.

Emily has been sewing for Samaritan's Purse as part of her service component of the Duke of Edinburgh bronze award this year. We visited the Samaritan's Purse office in Sydney earlier this year and it was so nice to hear about their activities. They mentioned that many children don't even have a carry bag for their school books so they love to have a bag included in the shoe box. Hence the bag above, it's big enough to fit the shoe box in so our child will be able to carry their box home, and the child who receives it will, hopefully, be able to use it to carry their books in the future.

Samaritan's Purse has operations in many places around the world, please visit their site, and help if you can. We love putting together the shoebox gift and sending it on its journey!

Thanks for visiting.

Fiona x

 

ribbons galore news :new ribbons and pouches

A quick update on some new ribbons that have been added to the Ribbons Galore store:

New pouches are now available in the Handmade Store at Ribbons Galore.

The rick rack behind the German ribbons on the pouches is a new grosgrain rick rack in store now.

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x
  

christmas ideas [day 3] : christmas bunting, banners and garlands

The Christmas idea I'm sharing today is an almost no sew Christmas bunting. I say it's almost no sew as the flag parts of the bunting have no sewing whatsoever, and the only sewing involved in this project is stitching the flags to the ribbons.

To create each flag, choose two fabrics, one for the front and one for the back. Cut the fabrics slightly larger that the finished triangle. Fuse both pieces together with fusible webbing (the stuff used for applique work). Now cut the triangle flag shape from this double sided fabric. For something a little different, I used my pinking shears to cut the edges.

 

Once you have your desired number of flags made, pin them in place along a length of ribbon. I've used plain grosgrain from Ribbons Galore. I added a thinner ribbon to the middle of the first ribbon for some detail. I then stitched another piece of ribbon to the back of these front ribbons to hide the raw edges of the bunting flags. 

The fabrics I've used are from Michael Miller Fabrics, from the Christmas range including red, lime and green holiday ditzy, lime joyful damask and pink joy.

And here is it's final position for the festive season. Over our over-sided doorway at the end of our hallway. And I have to agree with Mel now, bunting is one of the hardest things to photograph.

Now please make sure you visit Mel's blog to see her gorgeous circular bunting that she has made, so very cute.

Here are a few favourite ideas for banners, garlands and buntings.

Mel has already mentioned this Christmas tree bunting in her post, but it was on my list of favourites, so I'm popping it on my blog too. This is from sadieandland blog. She has included a tutorial on her blog.

Shelley has shared a couple of gorgeous ideas for banners... the first one made from party plates...

... and the second one, made from page protectors...

This list at Whipup.net contains several clever garland and buntings which I won't repeat, just head over there and click through the list for lots of interesting ideas.

That's about all from me for now. Thanks for popping by.

Cheers

Fiona x