Women's March on Washington State Sash

My mother has no shortage of craft projects she needs for the Women's March on Washington. She sent me something she found on Facebook describing a sash that says she's from Florida. Since her friend is from Georgia and both states are mentioned on their banner I decided to make two-sided sashes for them. My mother's will have Florida on an orange ribbon in front with pink in back. Her friend will have Georgia on a pink ribbon in front with orange in back.

I got a Dymo Labelwriter 4XL for myself for a Christmas present. I thought 4"x6" mailing labels would make good stencils. I created a document in Affinity Designer and picked a font I liked and got my letters spaced nicely. Then I selected a 4x6 area and printed it. Then I selected an overlapping 4x6 area and printed that. I peeled away some of the backing under the R and lined it up with the other R on the second half of FLORIDA. Then I cut out the letters with an X-Acto knife. For Georgia I tried just letting the printer automatically cut it into two pages. This did not work well as it left out part of the R. I had to splice in an extra piece of sticker and freehand cut the part of the R that was missing.

I cut my ribbon 30" long

I made a two color pair for each sash

I sewed the two ribbons together with a French seam so the ends don't unravel.

I cut out the letters and then stuck the stencil over the ribbon on a piece of cardboard

I cut out the centers of the O, D, and A and placed them by eye

I squirted out some black puffy paint and applied it to the letters with a brush

Good coverage on the ribbon

I peeled up the sticker while the paint was still wet. Then I worked on Georgia

Georgia ready for paint

After I finished Georgia I went back to partially dry Florida and gave it a second coat freehand. Then I did the same to Georgia. They looked quite good. I was glad I used the cardboard because the paint bled through the ribbon and left a ghostly image on the black cardboard.

I also did a test FL on a scrap of ribbon. The next day when it was dry I applied heat to my test with a heat gun. It definitely puffed up. But it also went gray and lost the glossy finish. I decided I liked how it looked better without heat.

Above: Air dry 1 day, no heat
Below: Heated with a heat gun until puffy

They can secure the sashes with safety pins before the march 

To keep the ribbon from getting creased or frayed
crammed into their luggage on the train I used an
empty toilet paper roll to wrap the ribbon.

Ready to Roll!