“Curly Q” Bows tutorial

Good Morning everyone!  My name is Misty Willis, and I am SUPER EXCITED to be part of the Simply Renee Clip-It-Up team and sharing my very first official post with you!  It is such an honor!

One of my FAVORITE Clip-It-Up organizers is the 36” Ribbon Organizer.  It holds a TON of ribbon…TRUST ME!  And me, having a severe ribbon addiction, had no trouble filling up this baby!  (YES!  I do have more than you see! )  When It arrived, I immediately hung it on my wall and started filling it up!  I have a lot of ribbon on the rolls, but I also buy the ribbon by the yard, meaning NO ROLL!  I loved having the clips to hang all of my beautiful ribbon on! This made all of my ribbon easily accessible and I could SEE what I had! It was  longer a jumbled mess in a tote for me to have to sift through!  I could see all of my colors, sizes, and patterns hanging right in front of me!  I also realized that I am out of WHITE ribbon!   I use a LOT of plain white ribbon in all sizes…and I am totally out! I would not have known that prior to my Clip it Up ribbon Organizer!  LOVE IT!

Now…with all of my ribbon neatly hung and organized on my new Handy Dandy Ribbon Organizer, I felt an overwhelming urge to get creative!  I decided to make a couple of hair bows for my 5 year old to wear on Valentine’s Day.   Her favorite style of bow is the Korker…which she lovingly refers to as her “Curly-Q Bow”.  So, I picked my ribbon (which was sooooo easy with it all right in front of me!) And I set to work.

You will need:

• ¼  inch dowel rods ( I buy a pack of 12 in the craft section)
• 3/8 inch ribbon (I prefer grosgrain)
• 24 wooden clothespins
• Baking sheet
• 6 inch piece of  coordinating ½ inch (or larger) ribbon
• clothespins

The best size dowel for making Korker ribbon is a ¼” dowel.  You can experiment with other sizes, but I prefer this one.   You will also need clothespins for securing the ribbon to the dowels. For this example I am using 3/8” Grosgrain Ribbon. Preheat your oven to 275 Degrees  and then begin wrapping your ribbon around your dowels.   Simply secure one end of your ribbon to one end of a dowel using a clothespin.  Wrap to the opposite end, cut, and secure the end.  You now have both ends secured  around the dowel. Wrap all of your dowels with your ribbons in the same manner, then place all of them on a baking sheet. (Mine is a little discolored, as I use it A LOT!!)

Place your dowels in the oven and bake at 275 Degrees for approximately 25 minutes.  When you pull them out of the oven, let the clothespins and dowels cool for about 10 minutes, and then you can remove the ribbons.  It should resemble this:

 
My dowels are 12 inches long, which gives me 12 inch long curls of ribbon.  It is now time to begin cutting.
You can cut in 3 inch, 4 inch or 6 inch lengths…it all depends on how full you want your bow to look. 
For this bow set, I chose to cut 4 inch lengths of ribbon, so EACH curl of ribbon got cut at the 4 inch mark.

Once I have all of my ribbon cut, I then  separated the strands evenly to create 2 complete matching bows.  OR…..You can add ALL strands together and create a very full and poofy bow!

I use size 10 cotton crochet thread and quite literally tie a secure knot in the center.  I wrap the cotton thread several times around the center, tying knots as I go.    The more times your wrap the thread and tie a knot, the more secure your ribbons will be.

 

You will then use your 6 inch piece of ½ ribbon to wrap around the center and secure in place for the center knot.  You simply tie a knot in the length of ribbon, and wrap it around the same spot as the cotton thread…securing it in place with hot glue. 

Here, I have already wrapped my ribbon and secured my preferred clip in place using a glue gun.  Be sure not to get glue on the moving parts of your clip!    You will want to seal the ends of your ribbons at the cut marks to prevent fraying.  I prefer a heat seal, so I use a lighter…but you can use fray check if you prefer that method.

Now that you have your ribbons sealed, secured, and the center knot in, it is time to add any embellishments your heart desires!  Bling, buttons, beads…pretty much ANYTHING can be added to the bow at this point…by simply sewing or gluing it on.  I chose to keep it simple, though, and only add a simple heart.

My Daughter absolutely ADORED her Valentine hair bows!  As did all of her class mates and teachers.  I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and can make your own special little munchkin a “Curly Q” Bow now!  I would LOVE to see your creations if you do decide to try it! 

 

Misty

Need a way to organize hair bows?  We have a great idea for you.  Check out this post:

http://simplyreneeinc.blogspot.com/2009/08/organize-hair-bows.html