Boutique Bows

As a mom to two girls, I love me some bows! And I love making bows for them. And I've made some big crazy complicated ones, but my go to favorite is the basic boutique bow. Now there are tutorials all over Pinterest for how to make these, so I certainly can't claim this is an original design, but I thought I'd share some tips that I use.

First of all, ribbon. You can use all kinds of ribbon for these, but it's hard to beat grosgrain. Satin will work, but unless the bows are on the small side, they won't hold their shape very well. Organza can be a little thin and tends to be hard to seal neatly. And wired will bend into a wonky shape at the first bump.

These are the basic supplies you will need:

Ribbon
Needle and thread
Lighter for sealing
Center Embellishments
Metal Super Clip
Lined Clips
Not shown:scissors, glue gun, ruler

The metal super clips come in a 6 pack. I got mine at Sally Beauty Supply for under $4. (Not an affiliate link) These are the key to making this an easy process.

Source

First cut your ribbon. The narrower the ribbon, the smaller you're going to want to make your bow. I've found that good lengths are as follows:

1.5 inch ribbon - 24 inches
7/8 or 1 inch ribbon - 18 inches
5/8 inch ribbon - 12 inches

You're going to start by folding your ribbon in a squashed down zigzag pattern and centering it in the clip like this:

Then take your needle and thread and run a long basting stitch from bottom to top.

Remove the clip and pull the thread tight, gathering the ribbon in the center. Wrap the thread around the gathered center 5 or 6 times and tie off in the back.

I like to feed the needle through the tightened thread around the center when tying my knot to make it secure.

Take a minute to straighten out your loops and tails.

Hot glue a gem, button, or other embellishment to the center.

Grab a lined clip. I took the opportunity to make up a few.

Add your glue right to the top of the clip and stick your bow on.

These small ones are great in pairs for pigtails.

If you want, you can notch the tails. Just fold the ends of the ribbon in half and cut a slant starting at the side with the edges and leading up toward the fold.

Be sure to seal your new edges.

The bigger ribbon is a little harder to work with as the zigzag will be taller than your clip, but it's still manageable.

The biggest thing is to just make sure you don't sew the top of your clip to the ribbon.

Feed the needle under the clip at the top like so:

I love how this one made a flower in the center!

Don't you love this red, black, and white dot ribbon? Very Minnie-esqe!

These are quick to make up, and easy to match to an existing outfit!