Ruffled Ribbon

I often visit the remnants bin when I go to JoAnn's. You can get some really good deals and fabric choices. After the holidays they had a nice selection of organza fabric. Here are a couple.

I thought I'd make some ruffled organza ribbon from my stash. Here's how I did it.

I didn't really make any precise measurements on the width of my ribbon, I just varied my cuts from 1-2 inches. NOTE: I am by no means a great or even that good of a seamstress, so be kind if I get terms wrong :)

I ripped the organza into strips and pulled the stray fibers along the length to give it that frayed look. Note: Be kind to wildlife who may wander into the landfills. I always cut up long threads and fibers that are left behind before I toss them in the garbage.

I then set my sewing machine's stitch length to 1.5 which I later lowered to 1 or 0.5 for a tighter stitch. The 2 organza fabrics I used had different weaves. The brown had a loose weave whereas the wine colored organza had a tighter weave. You may need to experiment with your machine to get the right stitch.

I didn't bother back stitching since the ribbon would eventually be glued down. I sorta smashed/ folded the ribbon as it was pulled under the presser foot. In the picture I used one hand so I could take the picture, but in real life I used two hands so I could keep the ribbon straight.

 Here are the finished ribbon.

If you vary how fast you feed your ribbon or change the fold you will get different looks or in my case mistakes.

If you shorten the stitch length and go slow you can get a tighter looking ruffle.

So with a little effort you too can have a pile of ruffled ribbon!