18 July, 2010

Look What I Made!!

Just what is that you ask? Well my dear friends, that there is the adorable ribbon bow headband I have been lusting after for a year! I have no scientific research on this one, but I feel this style of headband was made popular by Blair on the show Gossip Girl, at least that's where I got addicted. Normally the bow is attached to a hard, pre-formed headband, which is really cute, but those darn headbands never fit on my tiny head!! (I have an abnormally small and misshapen head). So I finally gave up on purchasing a bow headband and decided to make my own, I am very pleased with the result!

To make your own you will need ribbon, in your choice of colour and width. I chose a neutral brown, in 6/8 an inch. If you are making this for yourself, I wouldn't go much wider, but if you are making a headband for a little one you could go a little thicker. But to each their own!

Cut three pieces of ribbon, the middle one shown here is your most important piece. It should be roughly 6 inches long. Then cut a piece about an inch and a half longer and one a tad bit smaller (my longest piece here is a too long...)

Take that 6 inch piece and use a glue gun to make it into a loop. Then , using more glue, press your loop in half, creating an 8 shape.

Okay, now you need to put a small strip of glue horizontally over your seam and squish the two edges up and together:
You are done the main part of your bow. 
Next step is to take the largest piece you cut and make a loop with it. Then flatten that loop like you did with the first one. You do not need to squish this on together though. Here is what you should have now: (only your second loop will be slightly smaller than mine!!)
 Glue your bow on top of your larger loop. It is up to you as to which side of the bow you face up. I like the folded side up, but the creased side is cute too.(excuse the blurry photo, my camera has a mind of its own)
Now take your small piece of ribbon and glue it to the back of your two layer bow. It will form a T like shown:
 
Wrap that ribbon around twice to cover the front. 
If you want this attached to a fourth piece of ribbon, to create the headband like I did, in your second wrap, take the middle ribbon over the headband ribbon as well (not shown here), this will keep your bow in place. Glue your anchor piece on the back. If you want to attack this bow to a plastic headband, ponytail holder, or a clip of some kind, just do the two wraps and glue it in the back. You will have this:

Cute right? You can use hot glue to attach it to the accessory of your choice.

And here is me, sporting my new headband! I love it!

2 comments:

Becky @ Babes in Hairland said...

That is so cute. I just got a bunch of new ribbon -- might have to try this out! Thanks for sharing.

Carly said...

Glad you liked it, if you end up trying it out I'd love to see the finished product!