Make: Ribbon Badge

by Designing Mom "Make" Contributor Dana

I made this #1 ribbon badge for my niece's first birthday....this Make can be created using either a sewing machine or by hand...I'm thinking of making these for with my nieces and nephew's initials and using them on their Christmas presents.

Here's the list of items I used:
cotton fabric (2 different patterns)

felt (I used white wool felt)

ric rac (any color, I used jumbo ric rac in blue)

ribbon or ribbons

air erasable marker

scissors or pinking sheers

circle & number template (optional, templates can be created on your computer and printed out)

stick pins

safety pin for back of ribbon

sewing machine or needle and thread

1. I started by selecting my three different fabrics...two cotton ones and one felt. I chose to use a red & white polka dot fabric for the back, a white wool felt for the middle and a striped fabric for the top.
2. once the fabrics were selected, I figured out how big I wanted to make the bottom circle (the back of the badge). I then traced the biggest circle onto the back of my red and white fabric. I used pinking sheers to cut out my large circle. I then followed this same step for the remaining two smaller circles.
3. after all of the circles were cut out, I added the blue jumbo ric rac to the back of the bottom circle. i first pinned the ric rac onto the back of the circle and then machine sewed the ric rac. I made sure to sew closer to the bottom (or inside) of the ric rac so that the stitches would be hidden by the middle felt layer.


4. after the ric rac was added, I then pinned and sewed the white wool (middle layer) to the top of my red and white circle (bottom layer).


5. I repeated the same step with the top stripe fabric circle (sewn on top of white wool middle layer).

6. after all of the circles were sewn together, the next step was to choose a ribbon or ribbons to hang from the back of my circle stack. I picked the ribbons that I wanted to use and cut two stripes at a desirable length. I placed the two ribbons together making a "v" and then stitched them together at the top. this helped me to keep the ribbons together when placing them on the back of the circle stack. once the ribbons were centered, I pinned them to the back of the circle stack. I used my sewing machine to stitch the ribbons in place. The stitch was a small vertical line at the top of the ribbons. The line was made small so that when I later placed the white felt number on the center of the circles, it would conceal this stitch.



7. after the ribbons were sewn, I used a number template & my disappearing marker to trace a #1 onto my white wool felt. I cut out my #1 using my standard sewing scissors. (tip: if you don't have a letter/number template you can create one on your computer using Word. print out your desired number or letter onto paper and then cut it out. use this paper template to trace onto your desired felt.)

8. after my number was cut out...I then pinned it to the center of my circle badge and sewed around the perimeter of the number.

9. the last step is to add a pin to the back of the badge. I used a coilless safety pin for mine.


10. I pinned the finished badge ribbon to a special bunny that I made for my niece.