Summer Bow Master Class Lesson 22 |How to Use Unwired Ribbon in Your Bows to Make Designer Ribbon

How many of you have ever seen, okay, this is kind of like a stiffened, almost like a rope. It's very interesting, but these are really fun if you're going to do like coastal things or stuff like that, and one of the things that you can do with it is you can stack it on top of other ribbon. You see that? So it gives it kind of a cool look, and then the ribbon itself gives it structure. So it's kind of similar to when you want to use like a super satiny ribbon that doesn't have wire in it. You can put it on top of a wired ribbon, and it will help give it structure. So if you ever buy an unwired ribbon and you want to use it, you just stack it on top of another ribbon that has structure, and that will help keep it in place. Okay, so remember how we were making the bow the other day, and we used two ribbons, and we kind of pretended like it was one. Well, that's exactly how you do this one, right? So you act like it's one ribbon. You just keep the pieces together, and that gives it structure. So this is how you use really cool little accent stuff that you come across that isn't wired and doesn't really have the structure that you need to put in a project. You just put it with something that does. Can you see how cute that is? I still have it, because how many of us have bought a ribbon that didn't have wire in it because we just loved it so much, but then we're like, crap, this doesn't have wire. How the hell am I going to use this? So what you're going to do is you're just going to use another one. All right, so you can clearly see this has wire in it, right? Okay, this doesn't. See that? It's just floppy. However, if I stack it on top of here, and then I put it in with this ribbon, this ribbon gives it structure, and it will stay where I want it to. This cross-grain ribbon, but you see that? So this is how you use the really pretty cross-grain ribbon, and you're able to make it stay where you want it to, is you just back it with, and you really want to back it with a stiffer ribbon, so like canvas works really well. See, this has canvas, right? So canvas, sometimes it's called denim, royal burlap. You don't need to hot glue them. It should stay together. You just want to keep them tight against each other. You can put a couple hot drops of hot glue, however, with this cross-grain ribbon. You have to be careful because sometimes those little dots will show through. You can use the glue dots. Glue dots, that would work. You would just put a little glue dot back here, and this is how you can get a completely unique ribbon and a completely unique look. Now you probably would want to put a little something on the tail because it will kind of flop around, but the actual loop itself should stay intact. Just a little trick for y'all when you're making bows, you want to use that really pretty ribbon, okay? So this is just the Aleene's Instant Tacky. Isn't it cute, this ribbon, right? So you would just lay it out. You don't have to use a whole bunch. So the way it works is you pull back and the little tacky stays on the little plastic piece. Be careful not to touch it. It is very tacky. You just set it down, make sure it catches, and then lift it up and the little tacky's there. See, and then I can push it down. You know, and I do it like every once in a while. I think really the only place you really have to do this is at the tails, but if it makes you feel better, you can definitely do it that whole way. See, and now look. See, it's going to stay together in that whole piece. See, so if that makes it a little bit easier for you, by all means do it. You know what, here's the thing. Sometimes you cannot find a ribbon that you really want to work with because, let's say you're doing, well, let's say you're doing an ice cream something and you can't find ice cream ribbon. Just go find some grass grain because these are inexpensive and pretty easy to find, and then you just stack it with a solid and you have yourself some really adorable ribbon. So this is a really great way to kind of make your own special unique ribbon. Some people sew it on. I think that's entirely too much. Like, I'm not going to do that. That's not really my thing, but I see people who make specialized ribbon. They will do that. You could also use fabric fuse on this. These are both fabric, okay, so you can use fabric fuse on it, and you can use the, you know, the little strips that you can use to do the hem on your clothes with an iron. You could do that. So there's a lot of different ways that you could use this same technique with a little ribbon. So Aliens has the fabric fusion. They have the little, you know, Instatackies. You can also change the look of the ribbon by stacking two together. So let's say you have something that has pink, red, and white in it, and you really need a larger ribbon, but you don't really have anything, and you don't want to go out and buy a new one, you can do the same exact thing with two different ribbons. This is really cool when you're making a bow because it just gives it a completely different look. So if we were to do these two separate, it's going to look completely different than if we do them together. The trick to this, okay, first of all, like my major rule, make sure you have plenty of ribbon to work with. So pull up and have a lot, okay, and then just kind of hold your finger where the two are going to stay together, okay, just keep hold of it. As long as you keep it tight, it's going to stay together. So this makes a really nice look. Let's say that you need a ribbon that has turquoise with pink, red, and white. You could put the turquoise in the back with the pink, red, and white on top. So this is how you can get a bow in the specific colors that you need if you don't have it in one ribbon, okay. The trick to these is just to take your time, okay. Remember, we got to get it in our invention. See how cute that is? See, and that looks completely different than doing it with the two different ribbons, and I have used this sometimes when a customer comes to me and says, I really need a ribbon that has this, this, and this color, but I don't have that. So sometimes I can take two different ribbons and I can put them together and achieve the same look that they want. Yep, this is how they make the designer ribbons, y'all. This is how they make it. They're just using different types of, they're either sewing it or they're fusing it. That's all they're doing, and they charge you an arm and a leg because it's designer, which really just means I put these two patterns together and then you, you fluff them as one, right, so you're acting still like it's one ribbon. If you see it looks like it's going to come apart, just put a little tack in that one little spot where it's coming apart, and then you should be golden. See, look how cute that is. So absolutely completely different look than if you had them separate, right. So this is just a little trick that you can do to get exactly the look you want, and I mean look, it looks, it looks like one ribbon, but it looks, it does look way more designer than if I were to do those two separately, then it's going to look like, okay, one plain ribbon and one pattern ribbon, but now it's like one whole designer ribbon. Now you know how they make it, because that's how they make it, and it's like the simplest thing on the planet. So we did that with a canvas and a canvas. Yeah, you could. What did you say? You had like 500 and something rolls on one of your shelves, right? Okay, so I have red ribbon, and I have blue ribbon, but I don't really have a patriotic ribbon, so I just make my own, right. See how much different it looks when you put the two together. You can just put the little tack on that one. Did I finish? Where did I put the rest of those tacks? It's probably on the floor. Won't matter. Put one right down here at the end. Put that there. The tail. Oh, whoops. I cut off my glue spot. I cut off the glue spot. Yeah, don't do that. There we go. So now my tail will stay together, and it looks like one ribbon, right? So by using two different 50-yard rolls, I'm able to make a much higher quality ribbon just by stacking them on top of each other. Yep, sky's the limit. Biggest trick is having enough to work with, because if you have enough to work with, then it's easier to keep them straight and together. There we go, yeah. So there you go. Now you can go into business making designer bows or designer ribbon. Yeah, the tacky was right there. I cut it off. Whoops. Yep, it is a good way to get rid of the silk ribbons, and it's gonna look spectacular, and people will be like, where'd you get that ribbon? Why made it? They're never gonna know that all you did was put two together. It's little, it's the little simple things that that really make the biggest difference, honestly. Let's take our last little sticky dot. All right, this time let's be careful not to cut sticky dot. There we go, there. See now, isn't that much cuter than just those two together? I did, I did do how to ship bows. I sure did, and don't worry, it's going to be a completely separate, like I'm, I've already pulled it out, and I'm getting ready to upload it to Kajabi so that you can go back, but I'll show you what we did. Okay, so this is the perfect way to get whatever look it is that you wanted. Like, sometimes if I'm doing something like this, I really want there to be a denim color in the back and not navy blue or royal blue or whatever, so I can use this method to get exactly what I want. See?