DIY Fabric & Ribbon Garland Backdrop

DIY Fabric & Ribbon Garland Backdrop - BorrowedBlessings.net

You know how projects on Pinterest look great until you actually try them and realize that it’s not realistic to make a project look pin-worthy?  Think again!  This project was legitimately easy to do and didn’t take any sewing skills whatsoever.  The most difficult part was choosing the fabric {not even sort of kidding here}.

Materials:
Grosgrain Ribbon {I used 3″ wide ribbon in silver, light pink and hot pink.}
-Fabric
Paracord
Scissors
Rotary cutter tool
Cutting mat
Yard stick
Lighter
-8 foot long 1″x2″ board {for hanging}
Spray paint {optional – for 1″x2″ board}
3M cord bundler hooks {for hanging}

Instructions:

Some of the fabric we purchased for the backdrop.

Some of the fabric we purchased for the backdrop.

  1. Purchase coordinating ribbon and fabric.  This was by far the lengthiest and most difficult part of the project for us!  My mom and I spent about half a day at a few local craft stores choosing fabric to coordinate with our grosgrain ribbon {PS did you know that the “s” in grosgrain is silent?! That’s a not-so-fun fact I learned during this project}.  I wanted the backdrop to be 7.5 feet tall, so we purchased 2.5 yards of each fabric.  Since the fabrics are varying widths, we got different numbers of strips out of different fabrics.  We tried to find a mix of colors and textures, but stuck to the same color family {light pink, hot pink, gray, white}.  We ended up with 5 fabric prints plus 6 types/colors of ribbon: hot pink sparkly fabric, polka dot flannel fabric, light pink plain fabric, gray fabric with arrows, gray tulle-ish fabric {I’m not sure exactly what this is called – it’s higher quality than tulle but still sheer}, white lace ribbon {6″ wide ribbon – we cut it in half to make 3″ strips}, light pink glimmer tulle, 1″ wide dark gray grosgrain ribbon, 3″ wide light gray grosgrain ribbon, 3″ wide light pink grosgrain ribbon and 3″ wide hot pink grosgrain ribbon.

    DIY Fabric & Ribbon Garland Backdrop - BorrowedBlessings.net

  2. Cut your fabric to width.  When you purchase the fabric, you’ll have pieces that are the right length but way too wide.  You can use scissors or a rotary tool to cut the fabric.  My mom cut it with a rotary tool {she’s a pro with that thing!}.  We made all of the fabric strips 3″ wide, but you could make them any width you want.

    DIY Fabric & Ribbon Garland Backdrop - BorrowedBlessings.net

  3. Cut your ribbon to length.  You’ll want your ribbon strips the same length as your fabric, so for us that meant cutting the ribbon in 7.5 foot long strips.  I used 6 strips of each color of ribbon. 

    DIY Fabric & Ribbon Garland Backdrop - BorrowedBlessings.net

  4. Seal the ribbon.  If you quickly pass a lighter over the freshly cut edge of the ribbon, it will seal the edge and not fray.  It just takes a second or two for each piece {don’t hold the flame in one place or it will blacken the ribbon – trust me}.

    DIY Fabric & Ribbon Garland Backdrop - BorrowedBlessings.net

  5. Tie the fabric and ribbon to the paracord.  We started with all of the fabrics plus the tulle and lace ribbon, repeating a pattern until the majority of the fabric was gone.  Since there were different numbers of strips of some fabrics, we filled in random strips wherever they looked good.

    DIY Fabric & Ribbon Garland Backdrop - BorrowedBlessings.net

  6. After all of the fabric and tulle/lace was attached to the paracord, we added the grosgrain ribbon.  The grosgrain ribbon made a huge difference in the appearance of the backdrop – it was SO MUCH fuller looking with the ribbon.
  7. Finish the ends of the paracord.  Once you’re finished with the garland, you’ll want to melt the end of the paracord with the lighter to prevent it from fraying.  I also tied a knot in each end of the paracord.  We stored the backdrop in a tote box once we got to this point until the day before the shower.

    DIY Fabric & Ribbon Garland Backdrop - BorrowedBlessings.net

  8. Attach the paracord to the wood for hanging.  We knew if we didn’t mount the paracord to something, it would sag in the middle.  On some projects, that’s a great look, but this one we wanted to hang completely straight.  We {and by “we”, I mean my husband} spray painted an 8 foot long 1″x2″ board gray so it would blend with the paracord and fabric.  Once the wood piece was dry, hubby used a staple gun to attach the backdrop to the board.

    DIY Fabric & Ribbon Garland Backdrop - BorrowedBlessings.net

  9. Hang the board on the wall.  We attached four 3M hooks {the kind that are actually made to hold appliance cords} to the wall several hours before we hung the board, just to make sure they were set.  Once the 3M hooks were set, hubby hung the backdrop on the wall.

DIY Fabric & Ribbon Garland Backdrop - BorrowedBlessings.net

The total cost of the DIY fabric & ribbon garland backdrop was probably about $50.  It made a perfect photo backdrop!  We opened all of our gifts in front of the backdrop.  It looked great in photos and was so much more festive than the plain walls of our church.  I am planning to re-use a lot of our shower decor for Ellie’s first birthday, so we’re definitely going to get our money’s worth out of these projects.  We’ve had so much fun making things for baby’s shower and her nursery!  Stay tuned for more of our DIY baby shower ideas and projects.

Full disclosure: HairBow Center was kind enough to provide me with the grosgrain ribbon free of charge.  Also, this post may contain affiliate links.  I earn a small percentage of anything you purchase through these links but you don’t pay anything extra.  Thanks for helping to support Borrowed Blessings.

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