Wife has gone to church but her sister just called (they work together on sewing projects) and I mentioned the grosgrain. She said the ribbon was grosgrain but perhaps the picture didn't show it. I had no clue what grosgrain was to be honest. I will show her this thread later and perhaps she can answer a few question better than I could.
You have seen it but probably not familiar with the word. It's regular usually synthetic ribbon in various widths up to about 1-2 inches with small ridges running across. I can't think of anything made for males that would use it, maybe a hat band or something like that. I've never seen it as fabric, but it could be that, too.
It's commonly used for trim or embellishment of womens' clothing and accessories. Or hair ribbons for little girls, really pretty stuff.
Anyway, that's great that they work together. Maybe they could sell the kits and people just assemble and sew them themselves. That's another idea. I made some really cute purses once but don't sew any more.
Good luck to them and please ping me if she has any for sale if they aren't too expensive, kind of a collector's item there. Just what I need lol.
I thought the ribbon looked really pretty but was plastic. The problem with grosgrain is the cut edges ravel so I don't know what the trick is to prevent that. I used to use clear nail polish I think.
Pictures and patterns of it, some kind of special weave - House of Ribbon
Hello Kitty stuff is popular, too. She could do that, probably does all sorts of things, looks like she's talented.