A Ribbon Mess No More

I have to start off by saying I love ribbon. Even though I have a ton of it, I just can't stop myself from buying more when I see something cute. Having said that you can imagine the huge mess I had. Many times the ribbon I order doesn't come in spools or even if it does, once it's open it starts to unravel and consequently you end up with one big blob of ribbon. After reading about Nichole's storage system, I knew I wanted to give that a try, everything just looked so neat!

I first got a few hundred clothespins from Wal-Mart and over a period of a couple of weeks, started wrapping all my ribbon around the clothes pins. I already had the straight pins to secure the ribbon for another project so no worries there. I ended up wrapping all my 1/4" and 3/8" ribbon on the pins. In the end, I rolled 5 yards at the most on the clothes pin. If I had more than that, I just put it away for when I ran out of a certain color. I then bought "penny jars" to organize the ribbon by colors. I found the jars at both Wal-Mart and Target for the same price.

Here's all the jars on a cute little shelf that I had Mo (and Conor!) make for me.

I ended up going with six jars which separated the colors nicely.

Do you like the kid's pics on the board above???

I originally tried rolling the thicker width's of ribbon but just didn't like how bulky it got so for 1/2" and higher widths, I went to plan B. In my naive days, I had bought a couple of these drawers made by Cropper Hopper for all my ribbon. I quickly realized that I had too much ribbon for this system but it ended up working perfectly for my wider ribbon. So any wider ribbon gets wrapped around one of the little cards (again max amount is 5 yards) and then into the little drawer. I think I may need to get a couple more drawers but that should about cover it.

Here's a picture of some of my stripes.

And finally, I can't throw scraps away so I bought this cute basket from Michael's at 50% off for anything 1 yard and less. Who knew I'd already have it filled to the top??

The whole project took me a couple of weeks from start to finish but I'm really happy with the final results. The ribbon is now neat and easy to find and the jars do look pretty on their shelf - so colorful!

Comments

[Samantha]

That ribbon looks gorgeous lined up on in those jars!

[Kerry J.]

Oh wow - this is awesome! Nice job - it looks so pretty and usable this way!

[kivonne]

OMG! First of all, you have soooo much ribbon! Second, it's all organized! OMG! You are incredible! Thank you for sharing...I guess I better get back to work! kt

[Lori J]

I have been tackling the task of organizing my ribbon also. I used the wood clothes pins and I really like the way it works. :0)

[Thanh]

You did a great job of using Nichole's storage system, Laura! It looks sooo pretty!

[Rosella]

Looks great! What a great way to display all your gorgeous ribbon. Even love the basket full of scraps.

[Stacy]

WOW! That turned out great! Love those jars.

[Lauren]

Isn't this ribbon solution the best! It's so pretty too.

[Laurie]

Great job! Can I just have your basket full of left overs? I'd have fun playing with all that!!!

[Lorraine]

your organization is magnificent. Love those penny jars. I'll be making a trip to WalMart and Target this week. Thanks so much for the great idea and putting it into action.

[Maria Levine]

This looks great very organized.

[Velta]

You go girl!!! I love organization...with our craft, it is a little bit hard to get there, but you have done it with the ribbon :)

[Lesa Rapp]

That looks fantastic! TFS!

[Marilyn]

Wow - this was a lot of work, but it feels so much better to have it all organized - love all your selection of ribbon - can I come play LOL!! Thanks for sharing!!