Almost everything you need to know about rick rack

It's easy to like rick rack. It's simple, fun, retro and even a bit kitchy.

The trim, also known as ric-rac, is a flat braid woven to form zigzags and used  as trimming often on clothing. Although it exudes a retro look and was extremely popular in the 1970s, it actually goes back to almost a century earlier and was a zigzag crochet braid used to decorate collars and cuffs. 

If you sew doll clothes, ric rac works on many levels:

1. It's cheerful and seems to belong on children's clothing, including children's doll's clothing.
2. It comes in many sizes. There's ric rac for Blythe clothes (1/8th of an inch from peak to peak) and for the American girl. You can play with scale, small ric rac on larger clothes, larger ric rac on small clothes. Or mix two sizes. Lots of ways to be creative 
3. It comes in many colors. again, lots of ways to be creative. Same color, different sizes. Different colors, same size, different everything. You get the idea.
4. It's easy to get.
5. It's inexpensive compared to other trims.
6. It's easy to sew on (more on this further on).
7. It's the original chevron fabric.
8. It's a classic.

How to Sew Rick Rack:

For doll clothing rick rack can either be placed within the fabric. For this a straight machine stitching line through the middle of the fabric (see image below) works fine. The only time this does not work is for larger rick rack over 3/4" which most likely won't appear on doll clothes.

I use thread the same color as the rick rack for the upper thread and the same color as the fabric in the bobbin. That way your stitching line is nearly invisible on both front and back.

Rick rack can also be applied to the edges of doll clothing or quilts. This is a bit more complicated and for a blog post in the near future. 

Even on tiny rick rack there is enough room to stitch through the center.

Types of Rick Rack:

There are three basic types of rick rack: cotton, polyester and nylon. The three materials have a different look, feel and capacity for withstanding heat. Cotton rick rack is soft, can be directly ironed and is the hardest to come by. Polyester Rick Rack is a bit stiffer and cannot be ironed directly. I place a cotton cloth between the rick rack and the iron. It can burn and melt if over heated or heated a second too long. Nylon rick rack, the least expensive, is designed for scrapbooking, not sewing, and melts into fumes even near the iron. I discovered this the hard way. Our smoke detectors were still blaring an hour later when dinner guests arrived. 

If you aren't sure what type of rick rack you have, iron a small piece at medium temp for a few seconds before stitching it to something you don't want to ruin.

Sources of Rick Rack:

Wright's Rick Rack (polyester) sold in the little cellophane cover packets is available many places online. It comes in over 20 colors. You can order Wright's here:

• JKM Trims and Ribbons
• Joanne's

Cotton Rick Rack can be found at:

• Farmhouse Fabrics
• Harts
• Elegant Stitches

Rolls of Rick Rack (polyester)

• Create for Less carries a cool brand called Cheep Trims in addition to having Wrights and lots of other cool stuff.

And for fun some rick rack craft tutorials. Thanks Ucreate!

Things I love: flower buttons

There's not too much I can say about flower buttons, except I love them, and they are hard to come by. At least nice ones are. Here is my entire collection, all from various sources in China (found through eBay over the years). The last shot is how I like to use flower buttons. What else can I say? They are the perfect final touch.

Things I love: Perle Cotton

This is the first post in a series, which I will call: "Things I Love".

Each week, I am going to post about something I love and why. Most often it will be about something I use in the doll-making process. I'll explain its virtues,, how I use it and where you can find it. There's no shortage of things I love and I hope some of these things will eventually become things you love as well.

I thought I'd start with perle cotton. Also called, pearl cotton.

Aquarelle from Paraguay and available on eBay.

What is perle cotton?

Perle cotton is a high sheen twisted cotton embroidery thread. It is very similar to a very fine crochet thread. It comes in sizes 3, 5, 8, 12, 16 and 20. And to make it confusing 3 is the largest size. There are a handful of brands--Finca, Valdini, DMC and Aquarelle.

Sizes three and five are thicker and nice for decorative embroidery.  I own and use mostly size twelve balls, but a few eights. I prefer the balls to the skeins, since they don't tangle and are easy to store and reuse.

I am obsessed with details and like to use a fun element in a detail that others might treat as mundane.  I tend to use this thread when my stitches will show since it looks neater brighter and shinier than plain thread. I always use it for sewing on buttons, snaps and labels. 

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Click on image to see a close-up of button thread.

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It's strong, you only need a few passes through to secure a button, snap or label and the color pops. I especially like it for sewing in snaps (another post on this) because they look so much neater and are more pleasant to sew on. Prior to switching to this method snaps were my least favorite task.

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Perle Cotton can be bought in many colors from the following sources:

Woolfelt Central sells a nice selection of size 8

Herrschners sells Size 8 and 12

Valdani sells balls and sets, a bit more expensive

Ebay has many sellers. I've bought pearl cotton from the UK and Paraguay on Ebay and been happy

I stay away from the variegated, not sure how this type can be used.

Perle cotton is not an essential ingredient in sewing doll clothing, but it does make details pop and the more mundane tasks fun.

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Hoarding or Collecting

Our obsessions generate a lot of stuff. For me it is skeins of yarn, stacks of fabric, spools of thread, rolls of trim, jars of buttons, patterns, books, etc… Fellow crafters might call this a stash.  When I’m honest with myself, I’m not so certain. Is it a stash, is it hoarding or maybe, could it possibly be elevated to a collection?

And exactly how do you draw the lines between any of these terms?

A stash seems simple. Having a supply on hand in case you run out. Enough yarn to make a quick gift or pair of socks on a sick day without going on a search for a “good” yarn. A stash is easy to justify and if small enough may not require a justification. I realize it is a current knitting trend to push the limits of what can be considered a stash.

Both hoarding and collecting mean acquiring more than you will likely use. Maybe hoarders imagine they will use what they obtain and collectors actually try not to. In that case, I’m somewhere in the middle.

Maybe hoarders cannot organize their loot and collectors relish the organizing and displaying. In that case, I am the latter. I love arranging my buttons, trims and fabrics almost as much as I do eventually using them.

For the most part, I am inspired by my stuff. I love piecing together the components of a project—the trim, the buttons, the lining, the threads. Each selection propels me into a deeper trance with the project. 

But I only feel inspired when I have the time to sew or knit. When I don’t and I see all of my fabric and yarn, I just feel deprived of time--the one thing that cannot be hoarded, collected or stashed.

The Beauty of 100% Pure Wool Felt

A good doll should be sturdy but cuddly, in addition, to being pretty or cute, of course.  But pretty and cute wears thin if the doll can’t withstand the test of love and time. That is why I sew my dolls from 100% wool felt.

Although a lot of people are sewing children’s toys, ornaments and wearable art with felt, the most are sewn with a felt blend—a blend of felt and rayon. Felts with 20 to 35 percent wool are perfect for these projects and easy to find in a wide variety of colors. A number of sellers on Etsy offer and the Internet offer wool felt blends.  Wool Felt Central is a great place to start.

However, for the dolls I cannot use the blend. Wool felt blends stretch more easily and the doll would not hold its shape while stuffing. I tend to stuff most of their body parts tightly and the blend could start to pull and rip at the seams. After being packed with wool stuffing, the doll’s body and limbs are closed with ladder stitch which involves a lot of yanking with sturdy upholstery thread. I am not sure the blend would hold up to the pulling and yanking and sometimes, redoing, and more pulling and yanking.

Felt on the Fly's swatch cards.

Which brings me to another important quality of 100% wool felt.  It is forgiving. I can sew on a set of eyes and after a day of living with a doll’s face realize the eyes are not quite right.  The stitching for the eyes can be undone, the eyes moved, the small holes fill in and the new face beams.

Pure wool felt will not pill. As it ages it does get a soft even downy halo, and for me this seems a bit like children’s skin.

For cleaning, I recommend periodically running a lint roller over your doll. If she gets a spill on her then the dry cleaner, Woolite or a Tide Pen will work..

Felt comes in different weights, the most common being 1mm thick and 3mm thick.  The 3mm is too thick for sewing dolls.

Pure wool felt is not inexpensive. It averages $60 a yard, but I think worth it. You just need layout thoughtfullyand cut carefully.

I have some wonderful sources for pure wool felt.

Purl Soho offers Woolfilz Felt from Holland in large squares, yardage and color coordinated bundles.

A Childs’s Dream also offers a similar pure wool felt from Holland.

Weir Crafts offers both 1mm and 3mm as well as felt blends.

On Etsy I have been buying felt from:

Felt on the Fly