Cereal Box Bow

When my daughter was born, I LOVED dressing her up and putting beautiful bows in her hair.  However, I couldn’t afford to buy all of the darling bows that you could buy in little shops, online or at craft fairs.  $7 for a bow…..REALLY?!?!?  That is when I started making my own bows!  I even sold them at craft fairs for awhile.  Have you ever looked for bow tutorials online?  There really aren’t that many free tutorials, but a ton that you can pay for.  Who wants to pay for bow instructions?  This is a tutorial of one of my most popular bows!  I hope that you too can save some money by making your own bows. 

Now for my tutorial…

Cereal Box Bow

Have you ever wanted to make bows, but don’t quite know where to start?  This is the tutorial for you!  It is SO easy….anyone can do it!

You’ll need:

*Cereal Box

*Metal Single Prong Clips

*Ribbon {I chose 2 colors for my bow (the pink is 5/8” and the black is 3/8”)}

*Hot Glue

*Needle & Thread

Now, to get started…..

* You are going to start by cutting out your cereal box template.

* I wanted to make a 3” bow, so I cut my template 3” x 4.5”. 

{{if you want to make a 2” bow, make the width of your template 2”….you can do this to make any size bow}}

* Making it even on both sides, cut a 1 inch strip down the middle of your template.

*Place your ribbon on the left side of the template and secure with a metal clip.

* Wrap your ribbon tightly around the template {making sure the template does not bend}.

* Cut the ribbon & secure with a clip on the other end.

* I made my bow a 3 loop bow, but you can do more or less….whatever you desire.  Every time your ribbon bends around the template (where the arrows are pointing), that will be a loop.

* Grab your needle & thread. 

*Make your thread a double strand.

* Leave a tail behind your knot (make sure you knot your thread 3-4 times)  {You will use the tail when tying off the bow}

* Starting in the middle of the space you cut out, towards the bottom edge of the bottom row of ribbon, insert your needle from the back.

*Bring your needle up and back down through the top, towards the top edge of the bottom row of ribbon.

*Continue this until you have gone up and down through all the rows of ribbon.

* DO NOT cut off your needle.

*Carefully slide your ribbon off of your template.

*Grab the ribbon with your left hand and firmly pull the thread with your right hand until it is as tight as it will go and your bow is scrunched up together.

*Hold the bow together with your left hand.

*Continue to hold the bow with your left hand, as you wrap your thread around the center of the bow 5 or 6 times, very tightly.

*Use the tail of the thread you left & the rest of the thread with your needle on it to tightly tie several knots, securing your thread.

*Cut the thread closely to the knot.

*Use your hands to spread out the loops of the bow.

*Glue your bow onto a lined metal clip & complete with a center ribbon or knotted center ribbon (I did a knotted center ribbon)

That’s it…..you are done!!  Pretty easy right? 

You can pretty much do anything with this template!  Just make a different template for different sized bows & use different sizes of ribbon as well!  The possibilities are endless!