For the last three days I’ve worked on just one project–a prototype for a fair ribbon. It’s a project I’m doing for free for a low-key client, but it seemed like an easy thing to start with. I thought I would be able to finish the whole thing in one day, but it turned out I know less about how to make fair ribbons than I thought.
Day 1: Picked out fabrics from scrap stash and embroidered a piece of blue quilting cotton with white embroidery thread. Wrapped it around the front of a 1.25″ Dritz make-your-own-shank-button, then snapped the back of the button on.
Day 2: Made the rosette for behind the button. I started by sewing two circular pieces of fabric together. Then I sewed a small circle in the middle, to create a ring. I thought that if I gathered the center of the ring, or threaded elastic through it, that this would create a nice rosette effect.
Instead it created this:
Then I sewed a long tube of fabric, and threaded the elastic through that with my nifty bias turner.
I tightened the elastic and let the fabric bunch. Still too messy. It looked like a scrunchie.
Out of ideas, I turned to the Internet for help, and found this post on the Chronicle Books blog about how to make a blue ribbon greeting card for Father’s Day. I sewed another (much longer) tube, and this time, I accordion-folded the fabric while sewing the folds together to secure them in a circle.
Day 3: Cut and hemmed the bottom ribbons, and glued everything together. Added a pin and a string to the back. Covered up the unsightly mess in the back with a blue felt circle.
Each day I completed at least one item, so I feel like I made a small, complete object each day, even though they were part of one project. Today I worked for an hour on the Amy Sedaris cross-stitch while I was at the DMV. After posting this, I’m feeling too tired to start anything new. Four days down, twenty-six to go.
Biz Miss 