Decorative Packaging

Have you ever tried to weave ribbon?  It is easy, fun, and looks great on this piece of jewelry. This is so much fun you can make them as gifts, or to fit all your wardrobe colors or even in your favorite athletic team or school colors and wear it on game days to show your team or school spirit!

What you’ll need:
a.. Four spools satin ribbon, 1/8 inch and 1/4 inch; b.. Scissors; c.. Blue painter’s taped.. Plastic seaming needle (available at yarn stores); e.. Lightweight fusible interfacing  f..Iron; g.. 1-inch and 1-1/2-inch covered button kits (available at fabric stores) h.. craft adhesive; i.. Pin back; j.. 2-inch eye pin; k.. Jump ring

Hint before you start: After you weave the ribbon, you need to fuse
some interfacing to it. It’s tricky to move your finished weaving
from your work surface to your ironing board for fusing, and so just do the
weaving right on the ironing board. Also, refer to the pictures for help

Begins with blue painter’s tape, which is a great craft supply.
It’s only lightly sticky, so you can tape things down and peel them back up
without damage or residue. The picture shows three pieces: one long and two short. I’ve
placed the long piece, sticky side facing up, on my ironing board. The two small pieces are used to tape the ends of the long one down.

Place the ribbons side by side on the sticky side of the painter’s tape.

Cut 20 pieces of ribbon, each measuring 7 inches. The picture shows 2 different
colors here, 10 of each color. Place the ends side by side onto the sticky
piece of tape, pressing them very gently to stick them to the tape. As you
can see, you don’t need to match up the ends. Peel up the tape and turn it
over in order to stick the ribbons down to the work surface.

Now, stick the long piece of tape down to the ironing board, trapping the ends of the ribbons underneath. Press the tape down firmly with your fingers. Rub and smooth the tape well and cut off the end pieces.

We’ll use a second piece of tape to anchor all thee ribbons for weaving. So, flatten all those ribbons out as best you can with your fingers. Then, take a second long piece of tape. Stretch it across the bottoms of the ribbons and press it down lightly so the tape picks up the ribbons.

Then, hold this tape in your hand and gently move and adjust the ribbons sticking to its underside until they’re straight and side by side. When they look good, press this tape down firmly to the ironing board with your fingers.

Cut another 20 7-inch lengths of ribbon. I’m using two new colors here, 10 pieces of each. (It’s good to note here that you can use any combination of ribbon colors you like for this project. There are endless possibilities. I would recommend that only one of your colors be a 1/4-inch ribbon.Thread the first ribbon on a seaming needle and weave it in and out.

 Thread the first ribbon on a plastic seaming needle and weave it over and under the taped-down ribbons. If you need to, you can weave your way halfway across, pull the ribbon through, and then finish weaving.

When you’ve woven the strand all the way through, push it up until it’s snuggled against the tape. Repeat the process with the next strand, weaving it opposite to the first.

Thread another strand of ribbon onto the needle, and weave it in the opposite manner to the first one, as shown.
Snuggle the second strand right under the first.
Continue in this manner until you’ve woven all the way down to the second piece of tape. Be sure to straighten and groom your work as you weave. Cut a square of fusible interfacing the same size as the weaving, and fuse it over the ribbons. You can iron over the painter’s tape briefly without damaging your ironing board.

When you’ve fused the interfacing to the ribbon, carefully remove the tape. Then, iron the ribbon again. It is critical that you get the interfacing completely fused to the ribbon so it won’t fall apart when you’re making covered buttons. So, iron and iron again.

When the fabric is thoroughly fused, trim off the ribbon ends on all four sides. Cut a circle from this fabric that’s about 3/4 inch larger on all sides than the top of the covered button blank. To make jewelry with your button, you’ll need to remove the wire shank. In the covered button blank I’m using here, the shank is just a piece of wire that’s easily pinched out with your fingers. Other styles of covered button may require a pair of needle-nose pliers.

Place the button blank face down on top of the fabric circle.Place the fabric circle, wrong side up, on your work surface. Place the top of the covered button, face down, on top of the circle. Notice the teeth around the edge of the button? Those will be important in a minute.

Use your fingers to wrap the edges of the fabric around the button top. Wrap tightly. Those teeth will grab the interfacing on the back of the fabric and help hold it in place.Then, press the back of the covered button to the front. Follow the package directions.
Because the ribbon fabric is thick, you may need to use a pair of pliers to help snap the two pieces of the button together. If you do, remember two things: Protect the woven top of your button by placing some fabric between it and the pliers, and be careful to pinch only the edges of the button. If you squeeze the center of the button with the pliers, you could easily dent it.
When the two pieces have snapped together, you have a finished button! So let’s make some simple jewelry.To make a pin or ring, glue a finding to the back of the button with hot glue.To make a pin, just use some hot glue to attach a pin back to the back of the button. The same method works for a ring. If you prefer, you can cut a circle of wool felt to cover up the back of the button before you glue it to the finding.

To make a pendant, you’ll need to add an eye pin to the button back before you assemble the button. Give the eye pin a couple of bends, as shown. You want the eye to line up with the top edge of the button.

Insert the top of the eye pin through the slit on the back of the button, as shown. This bent end will be hidden inside the finished button.

Then, install a jump ring on the eye pin to accommodate the chain of your choice. I usually also put a spot of tacky glue or hot glue under the top of the eye pin to help hold it in place against the back of the button.

These buttons have plenty of other uses, too. You could sew them to a cuff bracelet, or use them as embellishments on a handbag. You could glue them to hairpins.