Home Made Hair Bows - How To

I love, love, love making hair bows for my daughter and now that I'm expecting my second daughter I'm venturing into baby headbands. I love that fact that my girls will have hair accessories to match all of their clothes. They also make lovely gifts! They are really simple to make so I wanted to share how I do it. There's a few different styles I do but today I'm starting out with the basic plain bow attached to a pony tail bobble. I don't have any clips at the moment but once they arrive I will show you how to attach a bow to a clip. I've tried to explain everything as simple as possible. I know I find things a lot easier when it's put in simple form.

You will need:

• Two types of ribbon of your choice. (If you're just starting out, I recommend grosgrain at about 1" wide and 3/8" for the center)
• Glue gun
• Hair bobbles
• Ruler or tape measure
• Scissors
• Lighter

Here goes:

Measure out your ribbon. It has to be double the length you want your bow to be. So, if you want a 3 inch wide bow you need to measure out 6 inches of ribbon. Run both ends of the ribbon through a lighter to stop it from fraying. My ribbon is measured out at 8 inches.

(excuse the horrid old lady hands and chipped polish! My hands are so dry and sore at the moment. Also, please excuse the dirty oven tray in the lighter picture. Paul had just taken his dinner out the cooker!)

Fold the ribbon in half and press it hard at the crease so that it makes a visible line.

Lay the ribbon out flat, picture side down.

Put a thin line of glue right next to the crease line and fold the ribbon over. Repeat for the other side.

Turn your bow over so the picture side is facing up. Put a small dot of glue right in the center of the bow and fold both sides up. Hold in place until it's set.

Turn your bow over onto it's side and put a small dot of glue in the center and fold the side down. Hold in place until it's set. Repeat on opposite side.

Turn your bow over so it's upside down. Put a bit of glue in the center of the bow and place the end of your smaller ribbon down. Hold it in place until it's set. Wrap the ribbon around your bow and pull it until you have it looking good at the front. 

Put another bit of glue in the center of the back of the bow on top of the ribbon you've already placed. Press a bobble into this glue and hold in place until it's set. 

Put some more glue in the center and over the bobble. 

Wrap the remaining ribbon around and through the bobble pressing down into the glue.

Trim the excess ribbon off and carefully run the lighter over the end of the ribbon and you're done!

You can also add a center if you chose to. Like a button or a gem, etc. 

You can pick up glue guns really cheap on eBay. If you don't want to use eBay you can buy them from Argos and they cost £11.99 with 24 glue sticks. It's a bit more expensive but still worth it if you ask me!

Remember that practice really does make perfect. The more you try the better and easier it gets. It literally takes me two minutes to make a bow now and they are wearable almost instantly. As soon as the glue cools it's stuck!
Another little tip for collecting ribbon... when you buy new pyjamas (sometimes blankets, especially from Primark) they come folded and wrapped in ribbon. Keep the ribbon! It can be used for bows! 
Hopefully this was easy to understand and happy bow making!!