Hi everyone! Well, I have been pretty obsessed with stitching ribbon onto my cards recently. Makes perfect sense because I have been sewing way longer than I have been stamping! Anyway, there are lots of ways to pleat ribbon - many people use adhesive to hold it down; however, I don't use any adhesive - just stitchin'. My buddy from SCS,
Banu, asked me for a tutorial, so here you go ...
First, I'll show you most of the supplies I used. The white panel is 2.5 x 3.5 and the purple is 2.75 x 3.75. (I make a lot of 4.25" square cards, so I have lots of 2.5" strips leftover! Perfect for these smaller panels!) I also have a card base, Copic markers, PTI Vintage Picnic stamp set, some ribbon, and ink. (Not shown here, but used in the tutorial: Polka Dot Basics I & II, Spring Moss & Fresh Snow ink, and Chamomile ink - all PTI).
Click on photos for enlarged view.
So, go ahead and stamp your image and get to coloring! :-) Notice that I used one brown marker for the basket. To create the shading of the weave, I colored over some spots twice to make it darker. Don't forget to "age" your panel with the Chamomile ink.
Now, cut a piece of ribbon about 3x as wide as your panel. Here I am using grosgrain - my favorite for this, but satin works well too, although its a bit more slippery under the sewing machine.
Now, move to your sewing machine. (I use my regular sewing machine - its a Bernina Activa 210. I do use a different needle (an old one) for my paper projects. Otherwise, nothing fancy/different.)
Leave a little overhang off the image panel. I do 1 to 2 back stitches to anchor the ribbon and then lift my foot, need down as shown:
Now, fold some ribbon under the foot to create the pleat. (Sometimes I rotate my pleat a little to the right or left to give the finished look a little more movement. But I am keeping in straight here.)
Ok, now ... drop your foot back down on top of the pleat. And stitch over the pleat.
Good job! :-) You've done one pleat! Now, let's do it again. Lift the presser foot, needle down.
And make another pleat ....
Continue the process to the end of your panel. I like to do another backstitch or 2 at the end to anchor the threads. Here is my sample all stitched down.
Ok, for the card base, I stamped the littlest dots in Spring Moss ink onto Spring Moss card stock. Then over stamped with the polka dots outline in Fresh Snow ink. Then, I added the sentiment.
Now, attach your image to the mat and then to the card. Here's my finished cards.
Notice the different baskets - just by coloring the opposite weaves. Again, all with one marker. The card on the left with the Ocean Tides ribbon is a little "wonkier" because I rotated my pleats as I was stitching. (Note - rotate before putting the presser foot down.)
Well, I hope this little "how-to" was helpful! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment and ask away. I'd also love to see projects you create with stitched ribbon! :-)
Thanks for stopping by!
Supplies Used (all PTI unless noted):
Stamps: Vintage Picnic, Polka Dot Basics I & II
Ink: Spring Moss, Fresh Snow; Memento Tuxedo Black; Copic markers
Paper: Spring Moss, Lavender Moon, White
Accessories: Ocean Tides grosgrain, Enchanted Evening grosgrain
(click photo to enlarge)
Please excuse my poor photo - I don't have much of an editing program on this laptop. I think this turned out really cute. The paper, sentiment, and image are from the kit. I colored the Bella, cut her out and stacked everything on a 4-1/4" square card. I happened to have enough of this Rose Red (by SU!) card stock and that scalloped black piece in my scrap stash with me to make this. Love it! The Bella and the sentiments were cut out and popped up on foam tape. It's hard to see in the photo, but I added some glitter with a Sakura pen around the edges of the sentiment and also on the girl's bags, etc.