Rebuilding a sew on ribbon bar - any help?

[Paul70]

I have an 8th Army Air Force pilot uniform that had a sew on 3 place ribbon bar. I can see the threads sticking out from where it was cut off. The three ribbons were Air Medal, american Camp, ETO. Above that was a two place clutch back ribbon bar, which I have already acquired.

 

I try to rebuild missing bars with all WWII vintage ribbons and exactly what was on there, like Pin back, Clutch back etc. So I want to build one.

 

Does any body have experience building these. What stiffener was used? How do you get it to keep shape?

 

Any help? Does anybody have a length of the campaign ribbons, WWII vintage? I have the Air Medal ribbon piece.

[Reforger]

Check photos of sew on ribbon bars from that time period that are not attached to a uniform. You can check the forum, auctions sites, etc. for pictures. That way you should be able to see how they were constructed. Hard, thin cardboard would probably work well to stiffen the ribbons, but I don't know if that was the thing to do at the time.