If you know me, you know I love to embroider everything. I might not like the work... BUT I like it once its done haha. And many of my online friends have asked me how to embroider on ribbon when I make bows, so today I will show you! It is pretty simple :) keep in mind I only work with grosgrain ribbon, so I do not know how this would work on other types.
(SIDE NOTE: I still have ugly half purple fingernails lol. I never paint my nails and my girls wanted to paint them a few weeks back so I let them but now I dont have nail polish remover haha sorry)
So for this project you will need a few things (other than embroidery machine and thread). Here is what you will need.
Scissors, some heavy cutaway stabilizer, a smaller scrap piece, gorsgrain ribbon (this piece is just s scrap for demo purposes), adhesive spray, and your embroidery hoop.
First you need to hoop your stabilizer.
Next, spray some adhesive spray and stick it down as close to the middle of the hoop as you can. This will give you extra support behind your ribbon for dense designs. When using just a letter design I usually only use the one layer for stabilizer.
Now, spray some more adhesive spray and line your ribbon up vertically as close to the middle as you can and as straight as you can.
Next you need to open up the design you plan to use in your embroidery software. I use Sew what pro. I will show you how to resize your design there but I do not know how other programs work, you may need to google or read the info that came with the program. Open your design in SWP and then click the icon I have underlined in red here. It will open up the window you see in my photo and you can size the design down to make it the size you need. I am using 1.5in ribbon here so I need my design to be no bigger than 1.25in to leave some room on each side. Im happy with the size of this design so I wont need to change it at all. You can see how big the design is over in the upper right corner where I have shown you in the photo. I do size big designs down smaller to fit onto bows. I know the "rule" is no more than 20% but I have never been one to follow the rules, but NOTE you may need to also adjust the density etc when doing this so adjust at your own risk lol. Now save your design and load it to your machine!
Place your hoop on your machine now. Make sure the needle is as close to the middle as you can get it. (there are ribbon placement stitches you can download at embroidery garden but they only have a few sizes so I just do it this way).
IF YOU NEEDLE ISINT IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR RIBBON you can use these arrows to move it until it is in your desired position IF you have a brother pe770 or se400. I dont know about other models, these are the only two embroidery machines I have.
Now start your design and stitch through all the color changes like any other embroidery project! Applique works the same way but I suggest using appliques with as few pieces as possible bc its hard to cut those tiny things out lol.
Once the design finishes stitching, pull it off and trim down the stabilizer on the back of the ribbon and TAAA DAAAAA! Now you can make a bow with this piece OR use two pieces, one to line the back of this one so the back of the embroidery does not show.
And thats it! Now you can use this technique to make all kinds of cute bows to go with your outfits! Here are a few I have done for inspiration!
