I just picked up some 5/8" wide ribbon in several colors, to try my hand at making a few of these. I grabbed some blue and white to replicate something like the one in the OP (for my XMarks cap badge), and some in the colors of the Buchanan tartan, to mix and match with my clan crest.
After talking about these with the woman at the craft shop, I'm thinking the easiest way to build these up is to mock them up using straight sewing stick pins, on a piece of soft pine or balsa wood, as a sort of jig. I have a small very sharp leather-working awl with which I plan to drive two small holes through the hub where the ribbons all come together. Into each of those holes I can push small silver scrapbooking brads like these...
That should hold the ribbons together without trying to stitch through 12 layers of ribbon, or with having to mess with hot glue that will dry and get brittle over time anyway. A pair of brads a quarter inch apart should prevent the ribbons from rotating relative to one another, and should prove quite durable. I'll play around with it to see how the idea works out.
Last edited by unixken; 21st June 12 at 07:15 PM.
KEN CORMACK
Clan Buchanan
U.S. Coast Guard, Retired
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, USA
Bookmarks