Tips & Techniques

Decorating Ribbon or Applique

I used to make lots of little girl dresses and I like to make them have unique little touches that were very simple to do, but made the dress look prettier. So these are two of the things I did.

Instead of just doing an ordinary hem on the little girl's dress, I would fold up the hem about 4" and press it in place and maybe use wonder tape or a water soluble adhesive stick to hold it in place. Then from the top side, I would lay a 1" wide ribbon down on top of the hemline and then take a contrasting color to compliment the dress in a 3/8" size and center it on top of the first ribbon. Pick a color of thread within the dress that will make the following stitching stand out.

Cut about a 6" piece of each size of ribbon and lay it on some fabric to make a sample.

Stitch A24 (DES1) and A29 (Viking 1+) is the stretch blind hem stitch. Change the stitch length to .1. Place the clear B foot on top of the narrower ribbon so that the "red" mark on the center of the foot" is on the very edge of the ribbon. As you stitch, the satin part of the stitch should land on the very edge of the ribbon and the "fingers" of the stitch will go towards the center of the ribbon. You may have to adjust the fabric. This looks very decorative. So, you can see why the color of the thread to contrast the ribbon is very important.

Just for kicks now, let's decorate the edge of that wider ribbon. This time, MIRROR the stitch so the fingers of the stitch go on the fabric. You can change the "stitch width" to make the fingers longer if you like. You may have to move the foot over a bit so the satin stitch is on the edge.

This is also a wonderful stitch to use for applique work. It covers the raw edge with the satin stitch and then the fingers look decorative. Just remember, you can use the stitch mirrored or regular, depending on which way you want the fingers to go. Either way, the satin stitching holds down the raw edge.