By now most of us have either bought, DIY’d, or thought of DIY’ing the burlap ribbon wreath, right? You know the one I made in Fall and altered throughout the holiday season to fit Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas decor?
No doubt the wreath is fabulous and versatile but what do you do with all that burlap ribbon when the look wears off on you?
I used about 4 rolls of ribbon on that wreath and to let that go to waste would’ve been a shame. So like any self respecting DIY’er who also happens to be a thriftress, I got to unraveling the ribbon from the wire frame with the aid of a home made mask aka. a towel tied around my nose and mouth. After a few hours of frustration and a lot of burlap dust flying all over the house later what do I end with? A big heap of twisted curly burlap mess!
How in the world do I make this burlap mess reusable? FYI: This is just one half of a roll in the picture.
A hot iron and liquid starch or even a spray bottle of water did the trick. I tried it both ways using the starch and water; they both worked great on straightening out the ribbon. But from my experience making the pleated burlap wreath I’ve seen that the starched ribbon holds up better against the harsh winds outside. So depending on what you want to reuse the burlap ribbon for you could use liquid starch or water.
I also have a gut feeling that the starch might hold down the burlap fibers better so that next time you work with the ribbon there will be less dust. I still have 3 more rolls of burlap ribbon to re-purpose; will report back my findings when I get around to using them.
Have you reused burlap ribbon? How did you get it to hold its shape?
I reuse all my ribbon (I am super cheap) and to get it to hold shape (if it isn’t wired.. I try to only buy wired ribbon now since it holds up better) is to use spray starch. It will make it nice and stiff, great for making bows etc.
That’s a great idea. Never thought of buying wired burlap ribbon, which seems like the most logical thing to do! Duh! Thanks Kim. 🙂
V