Like Pebbles pointed out it's hard to get around silk and the path she posted is probably the best one you could take. Hunter's cloth is a good alternative to green ribbons, but once you get close enough to Hunter's Cloth, you need bonecraft sub of 21 and hard to find Carapace Powder, which you will probably need to make yourself. You'll also need a godawful amount of cotton thread. But it's still somewhat cheaper than silk. You still have to work your way close enough to it though. So I suggest silk cloth to 53 anyway and then make as many ribbons as you can out of it.
There are alternatives, but most end up being more pricey anyway. If you want to sift through the recipes to decide what you want to do about it yourself, go here:
http://ffxi.somepage.com/recipedb/cl...ft-synth-1.php