Happy St. Patrick's Day! (ribbon aplique)

 

St. Patrick's Breastplate:

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

Not all of you know it, but I have very deep Irish roots. All the way back to 10-12 years ago. :D

Thanks to many staunchly Irish friends, Irish step and ceili dancing, a love of the music and culture, I'm probably more loyal to Irish culture than any actually in my heritage.



A friend performing at the State Fair.
(don't have time to scan one of Katie or me)

I saw the original idea for this in a magazine, where they used ribbon to make swirls and flowers on a t-shirt. I immediately thought of shamrocks, and made up a way to do it.

The large shamrock probably took about 20" of ribbon, but I started with one end and kept unravelling the spool as I made it, so I'm not sure. Leaving a long end for the stem, make a loop, and then make a second loop! Pin them together.

Repeat, but keeping the 3rd & 4th loops off to the side. Pin again.

Repeat again, giving you the three parts of the shamrock, with a lot of pins.

Arrange and re-arrange the loops to look more leaf-like.

I flipped some to be folded awareness-ribbon-style.

Stitch everything down through the middle and up around the looped sections.

Bring the non-stem end to the back, and tack it down securely.

Presto: shamrock!

Pin (or glue) them onto the shirt, or ANYTHING else you can think of.
Twist the ribbon if you want it to curve.

 Tack it down with big stitches at the middle, around the leaves, and all down the stem.

Wear proudly!

P.S. Here's an example I found of ribbon aplique used in an all-over design.