Adding Ribbon to my Masquerade Mask Applique Design and Easy Carrot

Have you seen my masquerade mask applique design in my etsy shop? How about my simple carrot applique design? If so, you may have wondered how I attached the korker ribbon. The steps are all in the design and it is super easy thanks to my trusty friend, tape. This tutorial works for both designs.


First, you will need korker ribbon. There are a lot of tutorials for how to make korker ribbon online and you can even buy it pre-korked (is that a word?). Basically you need grosgrain ribbon, a dowel, some spray starch, clothes pins and an oven. It's easy, just a little time consuming. I usually do a lot at one time and work with what I have for a while until I need something else. Since this isn't a tutorial for korker ribbon I won't go into the steps but if you don't know how you can check out this ehow article to get the idea. FYI, it doesn't mention spray starch but I like to spray mine down before baking.  


The first 2 steps of the design are for the ribbon. If you don't want the ribbon you can skip these steps and probably don't need this tutorial. The first step is essentially a placement stitch for the ribbon. This shows you where to tape your ribbon down.  If you're wondering I started with 13" strips of ribbon for the masquerade design.  I trimmed a few inches away in the end but it really depends on your intended purpose how long you want the ribbon to be.

Step 2 will go over the placement stitch twice to secure the ribbon. After this remove the tape and trim the excess ribbon if you left a little too much.  

Steps 3 and 4 are the placement and tack for the mask fabric. Step 5 is the placement for the eyes. Depending on what you have in mind you may want to trim the fabric away from the eye holes. To do this I carefully run my trimming scissors so there is a tiny little pucker in the fabric and snip a very small (teeny) opening. Once I have confirmed that I didn't snip through my garment I then use that opening to insert my scissors and trim away.   

After this the design is ready to finish. Step 6 is the satin for the mask. Step 7 is the contrast detail on the satin stitch and step 8 is the eyes. And you're done! Wasn't that easy?