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Crease free silk ribbon storage

Crease free silk ribbon storage

One tip to keep have your silk ribbon embroidery look good is to use crease free silk ribbons! In other words iron them. Now this is a fiddly and annoying task so I am often asked how I store my silk ribbon so that is does not get scrunched.

silk ribbon holdersI keep many of my ribbons on these hand turned wood ribbon holders. These are made by Jerry my husband. However my ribbon stash has been growing quicker than he has been able to stand at his lathe. So I decided I needed to come up with another solution.

If you wind ribbons around something it will keep them crease free. Just about anything will do, for years I used the cardboard toilet roll innards to do the task! But I have been successfully using this method for a while now  and I thought I would share it!

Some people use the commercial thread bobbins to store their silk ribbon but this method has a problem as the commercial thread bobbins create a neat little crease ever inch or so as the ribbon is wrapped around the bobbin which is of course just what you do not want.

However I think I have a solution as I realised that all they needed was a little ‘padding’ to take out the hard edge that makes the crease. This padding is a plastic straw.

silk ribbon crease free 1Get a plastic drinking straw. Measure the straw against the thread bobbin and cut the straw  the length of the notch on the bobbin.

Do this twice so that you have one piece of straw for each side of your bobbin.

silk ribbon crease free 2With old scissors (these are old embroidery scissors that are now used for other things) cut the straw open, up the side.

silk ribbon crease free 3Slip the piece of straw over each side of the embroidery thread bobbin. The straw will stay on as it grips the bobbin.

silk ribbon crease free 4Wind your ribbon on not too tight and you will have no more creases!

silk ribbon on bobbinsI hope you find this tip useful.

It works trust me!

Friday freebies is a regular series in which I highlight free resources online, free patterns and links that are of interest to fiber folks.

All posts in the series are in the  Friday Freebie category I hope you enjoy them.


34 Comments

  1. I’m starting a project that incudes silk ribbons. I was looking and looking for a way that I would/could accept storing them. This is it!!! Thank you so much.

    Liz Williams
  2. I agree, great idea! Why didn’t I think of it? My silk ribbons are kept on the empty roll from my cling wrap with another split empty roll over the top to stop them from unwinding, but it is so unwieldy. This is much better and easier to handle and store. Thank you

    Pat
  3. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful tip. I had been pondering a solution to my silk ribbon storage for some time. I had considered covering cardboard with batting to cushion the folds. I definitely like your idea better.

    Karen Hancock
  4. This is a wonderful idea! I wonder if it would work on floss too? I’ve always used cardboard bobbins, but bought some of the new plastic ones a while ago. The edges are really sharp, and after a first few attempts, I gave up using them. Hopefully this will let me give them new life 🙂

  5. What a FANTASTIC idea! I stopped storing my floss this way because of the creases (and now my floss drawer is an utter mess). This is just so simple and so smart, and what a wonderful stash of ribbon you have!

    Margo

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