Ruffle Bow

I made my girls some ruffle bows to match their Christmas dresses.

Here's how I made them:

Start with two strips of fabric approx. 19" x 2 1/2"  and 1" x 9"

You can see that they are not exact and that's ok.

Next, fold your bigger piece in half with wrong sides together and stitch it together like so. You could also use a basting stitch with your sewing machine. Mine was put away when I made these so it was easier to do it by hand than drag out the sewing machine.

Gather up the fabric in a spiral. The top layer is gathered more tightly than the back layer. I just played around with it until I liked how it looked.

Fold under the the edge and hot glue in place. Then hot glue it all in place. I just did a dab every inch or two as I went around, starting from the center. 

 Then make a rosette for the center.  Take your smaller strip and tie a knot in one end.

Then twist and turn the fabric around the knot, hot gluing as you go to hold it in place.  I was careful to keep raw edges hidden for these bows.

Keep going until it's the size you like.

Turn the rosette over and hot glue the fabric to the back.

 Trim.

Hot glue it onto the bow.

Turn your bow over - it looks a bit unfinished.

 Take a scrap of fabric and glue it on. I should have done a circle it would have looked better.

Now you have a better surface to glue on your clip.  I prefer these kind of clips. I find that alligator clips fall out. These will stay in well as long as some of the hair is pulled into an elastic - which is always the case for us.

Now make few more.

I did one to match the skirt my oldest daughter made too.