Wire Ribbon Bow Tutorial

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Lindsey’s easy wire ribbon bow can be attached to anything. Think of all the decoration possibilities!
It’s time to “deck them halls, ya’ll” (as one of my favorite family Christmas ornaments reads), so let’s spruce things up a bit with a classic decoration: a bow.
My Mom has always been crazy for holiday decorating. In her most eager years, the dozens of Tupperware bins full of lights and garlands have been known to mysteriously make their way out of the closet before Thanksgiving. This is why I became a bow-making master at the age of thirteen. Year after year, Mom would have to buy new velvet bows to replace those that became too wrinkled during the off-season. Mom came up with the cheap solution of making our own bows, and I do believe I came up with a perfect technique.
For this tutorial, I used 1.5″ wide wire-edged ribbon, but the steps can easily be adapted to accommodate larger or smaller widths. With the wire edges, these bows can be squished for storage and brought back to life with some quick reshaping. They can be added to wreaths (as I did above), trees, gifts, garlands…and many other things. Enjoy!


1. Gather your materials: scissors, apx. 5’7″ wire-edged ribbon, ruler, a hot glue gun, and wire. Cut two 18″ sections of ribbon.


2. Form each section into a loop, gluing to secure edges.


3.Two loops!


4. Press the seam of each loop down and glue to form long “8”s.


5. Squish and fold each “8” so that one angles up a bit and the other angles down.


6. Cut two new pieces of ribbon, 13″ long. Fancy up the ends with a diagonal cut or a “V.” These will be the bow’s legs.


7. Glue the legs together at an angle to form a big “V.” Stack the two squished “8”s and glue. Cut a little strip of ribbon, about 4″ to wrap around the bow.


8. Wrap the little strip around the bow and glue.


9. Glue the bow on top of the legs. Gently “crunch” to make the bow look pretty.


10. If you are attaching the bow to something, like a wreath, a present, or your best friend, just twist up some wire, glue it to the back of the legs, and cover with a little scrap of ribbon.

Happy decorating, ya’ll!


 

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