How to Make Hair Bows Like a Pro

I learned how to do this when I was pregnant with Jessamine. After ogling all the cute girl stuff for years on my way to the one little rack of unimaginative boys' clothes, I wanted to supply my daughter with cute, unique hair accessories. But it was difficult to find anything I liked, and they were so expensive! Twelve dollars for a scrap of ribbon glued to a barrette???

The thing I like most about bow-making is that it is a great, inexpensive craft for the uncrafty and impatient. I can't sew a straight line, I miss-count my cross-stitches, I can't even color inside the lines. But this I can do.

There are many ways to make bows. A bow is simply the symmetrical folding of ribbon. You don't have to follow a prescribed method, you can simply play with your ribbon until you find a design you like. This is just an example, I encourage you to be creative and make up your own designs.

1. To begin with, I chose these two mini-rolls of ribbon from the craft section at Wal-Mart. They cost $.87 each and are about the size of a silver dollar.









2. The black ribbon is about the same width as my small alligator clips (available at most craft stores), the pink ribbon is much wider. So I used the black ribbon to decorate the otherwise plain clips. First open the clip and dab some Fabri-Tac fabric glue along the tines.

Do not be tempted to use your glue gun. I know you have a relationship with your glue gun and you can't imagine not using it. But this is not the craft for a glue gun. You need glue that dries slowly and doesn't leave globs and strings all over the place.

Stick the end of the ribbon to the tines, then turn the clip over, bending the ribbon, and do the same to the back side.









Continue all the way around the clip, back to the inner tines, until the entire barrette, inside and out, is lined with ribbon. Be careful to wipe off excess glue, you don't want to glue the thing shut.
























3. Play with your ribbon. Don't cut any pieces off yet, except the pieces you used to cover the clips. Just play with the ribbon, folding it in different ways, to get an idea of what you're going for.









I decided to do a layered bow, with a large 4" pink bow and a smaller, simpler 3" black bow.

4. I started with the pink bow. If it's going to be 4" wide, that means the loops are going to be 2". I wanted four loops. Each loop would therefore consist of four inches of ribbon, two for the front of the loop and two for the back. So I needed sixteen inches for the loops, plus slack for tails and mistakes. So I cut two lengths of 24", for which there was only just enough ribbon on that little spool.

This ribbon had writing and graphics on it that I wanted to be visible on the finished product, so I had to keep that in mind as I folded the bow. I folded the length in half, with the design on the inside. That crease I formed would become the center of my bow. To form a two inch loop, I folded one end up, using my measuring tape.









I folded it down again to start a second loop, then up again to finish that loop.









Then I did the same on the other side.









Then I sewed the center together with some loose, large, ugly stitches. It's important to keep the stitches loose, to allow for manipulation of the ribbon.









Then I opened the bow and arranged the loops until they were splayed in an attractive manner.









I then made more ugly stitches to hold the bow open in the way I liked. These stitches can be smaller and tighter, but do not have to be pretty.

Ta-da! It's not done yet though, this is just the rough draft.









4. Originally I was going to make a four-loop bow with the black ribbon also, but I decided to make a simpler two loop bow with tails. To nest inside the 4" bow, it needed to be slightly smaller. For a 3" bow, the loops will be 1.5" wide, with 1.5" for each side of the loop, a total of 6" of loopage. I wasn't yet sure how long I wanted to tails to be, so I kept them long. I cut 12" of ribbon for each of the two bows.

I measured out one 1.5" loop, making sure the polka-dots were visible.









Then I made a second loop, maneuvering the ribbon to keep the polka-dots visible as much as possible.









Then I put a stitch in the center and cut tails about the same length as the loops. In retrospect I should have made them longer, as they still needed to be trimmed for fraying.

5. I put the two bows together to see how they looked. I decided the pink was just too much, and that adding some "spikes" of the black ribbon on the bottom would tone it down.









So I cut four spikes, two for each bow, 4" long to compliment the pink bow. Then I took all my pieces downstairs to trim them.

6. Yes, there is this goo called "no-fray" or some such you can apply to the ends of the ribbons to keep them from fraying. But this makes the ribbon yellow and crusty, it isn't pretty. For a polished, professional look, trim the ribbons with a woodburning tool. These are available at any craft store (including Wal-Mart) for $10-$20. They must be used on tempered glass. I use the plate from my microwave. The woodburner gets VERY HOT. So be very careful, keep it away from kids, and WORK QUICKLY.

The tool will cut through the ribbon very quickly, so slice across it fast. It will actually melt the ribbon, causing it to seal, and your house to smell disgusting. I do this in the kitchen near the stove so I can use the hood fan to take care of the smoke.

After you trim the ribbons, if you use your microwave plate, it will look like this:








Don't worry, the little melted bits come right off.

7. I made X's with the spikes, sewing them together in the center.









Then I layered all the pieces, positioned them, and tied them together tightly with string.









To hide the string and the ugly stitches, I cut a small piece of the black ribbon and wrapped it around the center of each bow, gluing it in the back with Fabri-Tac.









Then I glued a plain black button to the center of each bow.









8. Last, I glued the bows to the clips. I had to make sure to glue them in opposite directions so that they can be worn on opposite sides of the head.









Voila!









One of you (in the U.S. or Canada) will win these bows! Simply comment to this blog entry to enter. I have chosen a random time, it could be five minutes from now, it could be 3:08 Thursday morning, who knows? But it is definitely a time before 8:00 AM MDT, Friday October 26. Whoever has posted a comment nearest my secret random time wins. Comment as often as you like, it may improve your chances.

If you make some bows, please come back and tell me how they turned out. If you have any questions, leave them in a comment, and I will answer as best I can via return comment. Have fun! Be sure to sign up for my other giveaways, listed on my sidebar.

For more ideas and tips, be sure to visit Works for me Wednesday at Rocks in my Dryer. And while you're there, check out Shannon's Bloggy Giveaways!