Decorated Chaos: How to Make a Fancy Bow

Saturday, September 28, 2013

How to Make a Fancy Bow

A few weeks ago I had posted my Fall wreath and mentioned that I would show everyone how to make the pretty black & white hounds tooth bow that I attached to it.

So today I am going to walk you through the steps to making your own.

Pretty bows, fancy bows, whatever you call them, they look great almost anywhere you put them.

They can really dress up a Christmas or birthday present and even look great hanging from wreaths, banisters, on a staircase, and hanging on a fireplace, so if you are not already making these bows you should try making them by following these simple steps.

Start with a spool of your favorite wired ribbon, a twist tie, and scissors.

These bows are much easier to make and will look better if the ribbon is wired.

Cut about three feet of ribbon and loop around your fingers.

Tip:
Keep in mind the smaller and tighter the loops are around your fingers, the smaller your bow will be, so I like to wrap the ribbon around my fingers loosely so I get a "medium" size loop as shown here.

One you loop around your fingers, keep the remaining piece that does not fully loop around out like a tail and then pull out a little from other end so that you have a slight "tail" coming out of the top and bottom of your looped ribbon.

Tip: The longer the tail pieces are the longer your tail on your final bow will be.

Next just slide your twist tie under like I did above and then secure the twist tie around tightly so that your ribbon now looks like this:

Tip: If you are making a large bow and/or need to wrap your bow around something large you may want to use a pipe cleaner instead of a twist tie for this step.

See how the tails are sticking out?

Now for the fun part....just start fluffing and playing with the loops bending and shaping them to your desired look.

And to get the pointed look on the end just take one of the tails and fold it in half, then cut it at an angle. I already had cut mine, which you can see in the first picture but ideally, just wait until the end after you have formed your bow and then fold the ends and cut at an angle to give it the nice "V" point that everyone loves.