How-to Make the Perfect Bow

I have the best tutorial today! I've always struggled with making bows. No matter what I did and no matter how many videos I watched, I could never master the hand movements and the twisting and the turning of the ribbon to make it look "just right." Until today.

I made a Valentine's wreath recently and was looking for the perfect embellishment to make it complete. I was walking around a local craft store and found a bow very similar to the one pictured. I turned it over to inspect the handiwork and found something surprising! It was glued together from pieces instead of one long strip of ribbon. I ran home to give it a try and the results are perfect! This might be cheating but I don't care. It's so cute! Here's what you'll need... a hot glue gun, scissors and some ribbon. I got the widest ribbon they had so it would look right with my wreath, but you can get any size you want. I also made sure the ribbon had wire. This makes the bow easier to work with.

First, cut a strip of ribbon and fold it in half. This will be the main bow part so make it as big or as small as you want.

Now use the glue gun to glue the seams together.

Then turn the ribbon so the seam is down the middle instead of down the side.

Easy so far right? It gets better. Now get another piece of ribbon. This piece will go down the middle of the bow so it doesn't need to be very long.

Flip the ribbon over (so you aren't gluing over the print) and fold the sides in so you can glue a seam down the middle.

Then lay the smaller piece of ribbon over the larger piece in the center...

...and pinch the smaller, middle piece around the larger piece and glue together on the back. Don't worry about what the glue looks like, this part will be hidden.

You can play with the middle piece and pinch the wire as you work. I had to trim some of my middle piece because I had too much. I just glued down the edges.

Now cut two long pieces. This will be the parts that hang off of the bow. These can be as short or as along as you like.

At the end of each ribbon cut out a triangle.

After cutting flip the ribbon over and add a glue to the end of the ribbon that you did not cut the triangle out of. Just a dab on each corner.

Then fold these corners in together so that it makes a triangle.

Do this on both ribbons. Lastly, glue these pieces to the back of the bow.

Mine looks a little messy because I accidentally glued it with the non-print side facing out. Oops. That's ok, no one will see this anyway.

Here is the finished product!

I ended up cutting the two pieces hanging down a little more.

I think it looks great either way, it just depends what you are using it for.

Finally, my Valentine's wreath is complete!

I love how it turned out and I think the bow just makes it!

I found my wooden "LOVE" letters at Wal-Mart, painted them white, then used wood glue to press and hold them together. They are held up to the wreath hanger by a piece of twine.

I hope this makes it a little bit easier for you when making a bow. I used to be frustrated and doubtful when it came to bows, not anymore!