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Embroidering on Ribbon

A red ribbon with machine embroidered gold swirls embroidered on front.

Embroidered ribbon is a terrific way to add personal flair to your projects. Whether you're embellishing a pillow, wrapping a gift, or adding charm to a tote bag, learning how to embroider ribbon will make your projects even more special.

Supplies & Materials:

Project Materials or Supplies
- Medium-weight (2.5 ounce) cutaway stabilizer
- Temporary spray adhesive (like Gunold KK100)
- Ribbon


Design used in this tutorial include:

- E5849, Albali Swirl Border


Gather Materials:

The ribbon used in this example is 1 1/2 inches wide. A long and thin design (such as a border design) with a 1 inch height fits comfortably.

Cut a piece of cutaway stabilizer a little larger than the hoop.

Spray the cutaway stabilizer with temporary adhesive (like Gunold KK100), then smooth the ribbon on top.

Gunold KK100 with a piece of cutaway stabilizer and a red ribbon laid over top on wood table.

Hoop the ribbon.

You can see that only the ends of the ribbon are hooped. The temporary adhesive used previously helps to bind the ribbon to the stabilizer to avoid shifting and misalignment.

Cutaway stabilizer and red ribbon hooped in a machine embroidered hoop on wood table.
 

Start Embroidering:

Embroider the design.

Cutaway stabilizer with red ribbon hooped in machine embroidery hoop attached to embroidery machine.

Trim the excess stabilizer away.

Silver scissors cutting excess cutaway stabilizer away from the back side of the embroidered red ribbon.

Because the sides of the ribbon can't be hooped, you may see that they get a little wavy. This is not unusual.

Machine embroidered ribbon with gold swirls embroidered on the front.

Embroidered ribbon is also terrific as trim for tablecloths, decoration on dresses, or as hair bows!

Machine embroidered red ribbon with gold swirls  tied into the shape of a bow.