Day 2, another project for Utah

Today is day 2 of my blogging experience.  The boys went down for their naps a bit ago, and since then I have been able to finish up yet another project for Utah.  Today I wanted to make a tag for my carry on bag, but I wanted one that could be easily removed then placed on my bag for the swarm.  As there are 400 slots available for the swarm I want to be sure that whatever bag I choose will stand out in the crowd.  I am really good at misplacing items (just ask my husband), so I am working overtime to ensure that doesn't happen on this trip.

So, first the finished product then a few photos from along the way.  This is a classic "Korker" style bow often used for little girl hair ribbons.  I love these bows and use any excuse to make them.  I have made them for friends with little girls, but have never had the opportunity to make on for myself.  When I started thinking about this project I knew I wanted to do it Korker style. 

So, now you may be asking yourself, how do you make those cute curly bows.  Here is a quick overview of the process with a few photos to help.  If you have any questions please leave a message and I will try to answer them.  As I am new to blogging and this is my first set of step by step instructions, I'm sure I will miss something along the way.

To begin you will need:

wooden dowel rods

wooden clothes pins

grossgrain ribbon

needle and thread

scissors

a ruler

and access to an oven

a foil baking pan or foil lined cookie sheet

Begin by preheating your oven to 200 degrees F.  

You will need to wrap ribbon around the entire lengh of the dowel rod and secure it at both ends with a wooden clothes pin.

Once you have completed wrapping your dowel rods with ribbon place them in the baking pan.  For this project I used 2 types of ribbon each spool was 3 yards- that amount of ribbon wrapped 6 dowel rods completly with a little ribbon left over.  

The next step is to bake the ribbon for 20 minutes in the preheated oven.  After baking allow the ribbon to cool.  When the ribbon is cool remove the ribbon from the rods and cut into 3 inch segments.

Now begin threading the pieces onto your needle.  In this case I alternated the colors, but you do whatever works for you and the look you desire.

After threading all the pieces onto the needle I reversed the needle and went back thru the entire lot of ribbon- I did this several times makeing several stitches thru all of the ribbon.  Next, I took a scrap of ribbon about 12 inches long and sewed it to the korker to give a loop to attach to my bags.

That's it!  Just attach to any bag and you have a distinctive luggage marker that I can easily take from bag to bag.  I hope you have enjoyed this project as much as I did.  Please leave a comment if you have any questions.  Have a wonderful day

Missie