Ribbon Crafts - Making a Decorative Bow

When doing ribbon crafts, making bows is a great versatile skill to learn.  They are a great way to finish off gift baskets, wreaths, flowers and many other ribbon crafts.

What you need are a very long piece of ribbon - can be thick or thin, wired or unwired, although wired is easier to work with and a piece of craft wire, about 3 inches long.

Take a long piece of ribbon off the spool and straighten it out.  Pinch the ribbon leaving a long tail and make a loop.  Make another loop on the other side - so if you are holding the pinched bit in the middle, you have one loop on each side of your hand.  If the riboon has a wrong side and a right side, twist in the middle before making the second loop so that the right side is the visable side on both loops.  Check the loops are the same length by holding them next to each other.  If they are not the same length adjust them so they are.  Continue to make loops until you feel you have enough.  A good place to start with your first bow is to make 10 loops - 5 on each side.  Once you have done a few you will have an idea about how many loops you want your bow to have for the purpose of your ribbon crafts.

Twist the wire around the middle of the loops where you were holding them and then wrap the ribbon tail around the same spot and secure it with the wire at the back.

For some ribbon crafts you may like a dressier bow.  To do this, before tying the wire around, make another small loop in the middle of the two sets of bows and thread your wire through that loop around the middle of the bow so that that loop sits on top of the wire.

To finish off, fold the tail in half lengthwise and cut on an angle towards the fold so that you have a "M" shape at the end.

If you would like to make a double bow for your ribbon crafts, then you can make a second bow using a different colour ribbon, but this time make each set of loops smaller than the last set with one small loop at the center at the end like for the dressier bow.  Tie the two bows together and you are done.

Your ribbon crafts will never be the same, now you know how to make the perfect bow!