I posted a few weeks ago photos from my sister’s baby shower. Part of the decor I made was a ribbon swag garland. Today I’m sharing with you the simple tutorial on how to make one yourself. The thing I love about this garland is you can have so much fun finding special fabric and trims to add to yours to make it unique. For this garland I used a mix of kona cotton fabric, satin fabric, lace fabric, lace trim, sequin ribbon, ric rac and wired ribbon. There is no real amount that you need to buy for this, but as a guide, here are my supplies:
1 yard peach Kona cotton fabric 44″ wide
1 yard coral satin fabric 58″ wide
1 yard lace fabric 56″ wide
1 yard white Kona cotton fabric 44″ wide
4 yards 3/8″ velvet peach ric rac
1 yard 7/8″ lace trim in ivory
1 roll gold sequin ribbon
1 roll coral wired ribbon
twine
3m hooks
chipboard letter
modge podge
fine glitter of your color choice
I did not use all the fabric for each 1 yard quantity, I just started cutting 2″ strips the width of the fabric until I felt like my pile of strips was sufficient enough. I figured I could always cut more if I needed to.
My tip for you is to keep the fabric folded so the width of the fabric is in half, that way you aren’t having to try to cut the worlds longest straight line. So, if your fabric is 44″ wide normally, then you’ll be cutting strips that are 2″x2″ in length when folded. Unfolded they’ll be 2″x44″
Here is my pile of cut fabric strips. I cut more of the lighter color fabrics and about 7 of the coral color.
Once you have your pile of strips, you’ll then need either twine or ribbon to hang the ribbons from. I used twine because I have a huge roll of it that I’m still trying to dwindle down. Cut your twine to about the length you think you’ll want to span and then give yourself excess to each end for some give and to be able to tie knots.
If you want your ribbon to have the center point to it’s swag like mine did then you’ll want to loop a knot in the center of your twine before you begin.
Then it is time to just start tying.
Follow the images below because we are really just looping the ribbon around the twine and pulling it through the loop. I’d call it a slip knot, but I’m sure that isn’t correct.
Then just pull the strip down tight. There is no method to my “pattern” that I placed my fabric and ribbon in. I just kept standing back and making sure I felt like the swag looked balanced. I kept the fabric strips the different lengths provided by the fabric I purchased because I liked the way it looked. You could always trim all the strips to be even length if that is more your vision.
For my garland I also decided to add the initial for my niece’s first name. I purchased an 8″ chipboard ‘S’ from Hobby Lobby.
covered it with modge podge and poured very fine gold glitter all over it, then covered it with modge podge again. I then used an extra scrap of lace ribbon to tie it to the 3m hooks I was using to hang the ribbon swag garland from.
Have fun being creative with this project. It is simple and fun. I’d love to see how yours turn out. Email them to me. And I can’t wait to share how this garland now looks in my niece’s nursery.
And in even more fun news….my niece arrived on Friday!!! She is adorable! This Auntie is in love.
