Crafty Birthday Party: Leather Bows

Next I made leather hair bows. I used the free gift bow template from How About Orange with a small modification. Because I was working with leather instead of paper, I had to lengthen the center strip by about 50% so that it would fit around the rest of the bow. I also printed the template out a little smaller to get a smaller overall bow. I think I used the 4x6 size when printing from Picasa.

I just cut out the pattern pieces and traced around them directly onto the back side of my leather using a ball point pen.

Then I cut out the pieces, being careful to cut just inside the pen line.

I just used my glue gun on the high temp setting, and it seems to be holding up great, especially on the suede ones. I first folded in the ends of the long, main bow piece and glued them to the center.

Then I glued that piece to the shorter back piece with the side with the glued ends facing the back piece.

Before I glued the center piece on, I glued the back piece to a French clip. I found it easiest to first open the French clip and remove the curved tension piece in the center of the clip.


Then I wrapped the center piece around the rest of the bow and the open french clip.




Then I just reattached the tension piece and closed up the clip. This was SUCH an easy project, and 20 of them came together very quickly. They were a huge hit, and they have such a simple, elegant look. My sisters-in-law loved them just as much as the girls!





Tomorrow we’ll talk a little about the makeup bags!