Here’s an easy and inexpensive craft that can be used as a sweet little gift, a stocking stuffer or made en mass as a church bazaar or craft fair fundraiser: Holiday Hairbows!
These cute little clip on bows can be made in any combination of ribbons to celebrate a holiday, incorporate a favorite licensed character, show your support of a sports team (or school) or just match an outfit. Trust me–there are plenty of great ribbons to choose from for this simple DIY project! Start out by heading to the ribbon aisle of your local Walmart.
They have all kinds of different sizes, styles and colors of ribbon! I love walking through the ribbon aisle even when I don’t have a project planned–it’s just a visual feast of colors and textures.
I learned how to make these bows while I was down at Walmart Headquarters in October. The kind ladies from the craft department had an assortment of fun holiday polka dot ribbon that I used to make some for my nieces–Princess is far too old for hair bows at 13 🙂 When Walmart asked me to share a craft for the holidays, I knew that I wanted to teach all of you how to make them!
I decided instead of just making one set of bows I should do something appropriate for Thanksgiving and for Christmas. Then while I was there the adorable pink “Frozen” ribbon with Anna and Elsa on it somehow wound it’s way into my cart!
For your bows you will need 7/8 inch ribbon (two colors–one for the bow loops and one for the knot) and a 3/8 inch ribbon (to cover the clip). These three rolls of ribbon will make at least 4 bows, with ribbon left over.
Other materials you will need:
Scissors
Ruler
Glue Gun and Hot Glue Sticks
Needle and Thread (color is unimportant-it will be covered in the final product)
Fray Check (My bottle is old so the label looks different then what you find today)
Offray Hair Clips (found in the same general area in Walmart as the ribbon)
Eraser
Pin
Why an eraser and pin? You’ll see!
How to make Holiday Hairbows
1) Cut your ribbons for each bow you are going to make: 12 1/2″ from your main bow color, 5 1/2″ from the “knot” color and 4″ from the thinner ribbon you are using to cover your clip. Use your fray check to seal the ends of the main bow color and the thinner ribbon. You do not need to seal the “knot” color.
2) Mark your ribbon at the 2 1/2″ point and fold. Wrap the rest of the ribbon around and around.
3) Place your bundle of ribbon on your eraser and place a pin through the ribbon a the center. You can fold the entire bundle together to make the center easier to find.
4) Spread the loops out to make your bow shape and then take a few gathering “running stitches” through the center point.
5) Pull the thread to gather in the center of your bow and then wrap the thread around the center of the bow multiple times.
6) On the back side take a small stitch and then knot off your thread.
7) Take your “knot” ribbon and tie a knot in it.
8) Glue your knot onto the front side of the bow with some hot glue.
9) Put a dot of the glue onto the wrong side of the bow and pull one tail end over. Hold until the glue has hardened a bit, then trim off the excess ribbon.
10) Put another drop of glue on and pull the second tail over. Hold till hardened and then trim.
11) Cover your clip with the thinner ribbon. This will give your bow something solid to stick to. The ribbon will have about a half inch on the inside of the clip, wrap around to the top where the bow will attach, then go over the part of the clip that you squeeze and secure on the back side. It is easiest if you carefully run a THIN bead of glue along the length of the ribbon and then position it. Too much glue and it will squish all over the place and possibly glue your clip shut. You may want to hold it open for a moment or two as I am in the photo until the glue hardens.
12) Finally, glue the bow onto the covered clip.
Tada–Beautiful hair bows perfect for any little girl!
Looking for some other great crafts to try?
****This is a sponsored post****
Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received product samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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