I used to make these kinds of hair combs to sell at a market stall when I was a teenager but I completely forgot about them until recently!
Good excuse to use up some of my lace stash though and try a hair style I also haven’t really worn since I was a teenager.
What you need:
Plastic comb thingy
Lace
Hot glue or needle/thread
Scissors
Pearls or something dangly to decorate it with
The lace or ribbon you use should be around 1.5cm wide so it can scrunch between the teeth of the comb but fan out enough to cover the whole edge of it.
Start by gluing the end of the ribbon to the back of the comb and pull it through the first gap between the teeth.
Continue winding it around the edge and between the teeth. As you go fan out the lace so it sits flat along the edge and covers all of the brown.
When you get to the other side glue it in place and cut off the excess!
Now you just need something dangly to hang off it. I had this pearl chain thingy which was left over from some other projects so I used that! You could string some pearls together or you could add some dangly butterflies etc.
I sewed it on at the ends and in the middle.
Done and ready for cuteness!
Sleek and swirly! I like this style for business dinners because it’s a little bit work-ish but still very stylish ^_^
Now that I have a couple of these combs I want to try some more styles with them! Do you have favorite hair styles using combs I should try out?
Another quick easy prop hat to add to my growing collection 😀 This time I wanted a uniform/70’s flight attendant/military-ish hat for my website introduction video! Again I didn’t want to put a huge amount of time/effort into something I would probably only use this once and maybe as a purikura prop so quick stitching and felt to the rescue!
I used:
Pink felt
White felt
Needle, thread, scissors
I cut out a football shape for the top out of white…
Folded it in half and then stitched up the fold to give it a seam.
Next I cut 2 squares of white and 2 rectangles of pink (half the height of the white) which were long enough to go around the sides.
Stitched the pink around the edges with the white football piece folded up like this:
Stitch up the sides too:
Flip it inside out and you should get something like this (but with the sides stitched up).
Fold the white squares in half…
And place them at an angle on the sides.
If you stitch it in place and then fold the bit underneath and stitch. Taadaa hat!
Seriously this is a pretty shoddy hat but it did it’s job! You’ll have just to wait for the project it’s being used in to see it on me though ^_^
Now if you want to see some awesome proper hat tutorials you should check out some of The Fashionate Traveller’s posts she makes some awesome hats!
Very simple headband modification today! I do like plain headbands but some times you can’t beat adding a little bit of detail and this is the easiest way I know how. While it’s very easy to do it also looks quite effective if you use the right colours.
Looks a little like they are a heap of tiny bows!
What you need:
Plain headband
Glue gun
Contrasting ribbon
Scissors
Glue the end of the ribbon to the inside end of the headband. Make sure you do it at an angle.
It needs to be around a 45 degree angle so you can wrap it like this…
You could just continue wrapping, that would be very cute too!
Ooor you could do something a little different! Instead of just wrapping you should twist it twice and then continue wrapping. The twist will form the middle of the bow.
Do it tightly so the bows hold their shape.
Make sure you smoosh down the edges around the headband so it lays flat and flares to make the bow.
Once you reach the other side just glue it down and that’s it… finished!
I imagine you could easily do one of these in a few minutes to match whatever outfit you’re wearing 😀
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Miss Samanteina Bloodmyer requested a tutorial on making those hair bows which are small opaque bows encased in bigger netting bows. I think maybe it was Chocomint that kicked off this trend but I can’t remember. So here we go 😀
My result for a bow inside a bow…
What you need:
Opaque fabric for inside
Netting/tulle for outside
Needle, thread scissors
These couldn’t be easier to do!
Cut out two rectangles of the opaque fabric for the inside bow…
Lay them together good sides facing, stitch around the outsides leaving a few cm gap.
Turn it inside out and stitch up the hole!
Next lay it on top of your netting and cut out two much larger rectangles…
Again stitch around the outsides as you did with the first bow and leave a bigger gap this time, around 10cm.
Turn it inside out but don’t stitch it up yet!
Now poke the entire first bow through the hole of the first and inside it.
You get something like this with the opaque bow in the middle:
Cut another smaller rectangle of the opaque fabric to wrap around the middle and hold it together. Pleat both bows together.
Stitch it together securely and you’ve got a pretty cute bow!
Taadaaaaa!
Of course you just need to add a bobby pin, pin or something to attach it to whatever you like! I’ll have to take you all through a tour of my accessories wall sometime, with all of this bow making it’s gotten a bit out of control haha!
Yet another bow tutorial, are you sick of these yet? I think I’m getting sick of making them but I’ve got one more after this that I promised before I’ve crossed them all off my list 😀
Today I’m making an rosette ribbon bow. That’s a mouthful!
Below you can see the results, mine is on the left and the one that inspired it is on the right, it’s an AP one. I don’t generally condone replicas etc but this bow is maybe 6 years old and I don’t think they’ve made any similar for quite a while. I don’t wear black as much as I used to so I wanted a similar design in several other colours.Funnily enough this bow was the first piece of brand that I ever got, it was a gift from my friend Sandy many years ago and though we’ve lost touch I still think of her when I wear it. She was my Lolita big sister back when I wore it and I really wouldn’t be where I am today (personally, professionally or style wise) without the example she set for me.
I love this style as it can be worn in so many ways!
You need:
Thick ribbon
Medium ribbon
Thin ribbon
Felt
Bobby pin
Tulle
Needle, thread, scissors etc
The three ribbons I’m using:
First cut 2 lengths of the thick ribbon, these need to be around twice as wide as you want the finished bow to be.
Fold the ends into the middle and stitch up both of them. Pull the stitches tights so it ruffles them into a bow.
Lay them crossed in the middle to form an “X” and stitch in place like this:
Now make another bow out of the middle ribbon in the same way:
And stitch it on top…
At this point you really should wrap a piece of the small ribbon around the middle to hide all of the stitches but I forgot so I had to do it later. Clearly my brain was too distracted by the chocolate I was eating at the time, don’t eat and craft it’s serious business.
So pretending you did that, make an upside down V shape with a long piece of large ribbon.
Put a V of the middle ribbon on top of it.
And then a V of the small ribbon on top of that.
Stitch them all together at the top.
Then stitch your bow section of top of that!
The back doesn’t need to be neat because it will all be covered.
Now we need the tulle puff which pokes out the back. Cut a long thin piece of the tulle.
And do a running stitch down one of the long sides. Pull the thread taught so it forms a big ruffle, if you tie the thread to where you began it should curl around into a rosette.
Something like this:
Mine was way too big so I grabbed the non-stitched end and trimmed it.
Stitch or glue the tulle on the back of the bow and then add a circle of felt over the top to make it much neater and finished. No one is ever going to see the back of mine so I just tacked it on. I also cut two slits into the felt to slip a bobby pin through. I usually wear this in my hair but the original was a brooch back so it could be worn anywhere. Completely up to you which you prefer, if I had more of the little metal brooch things I would have used that because then it’s so much more verstile.
Now seeing as I forgot to add the thin ribbon around the bow to hide the stitches before, I had to go back and do it now >_< Craft fail.
Last thing to do is cut all of the ribbon ends into little points
And that’s it! Obviously not as good as the original but still quite pretty and in colours I wear much more often. Now that you know the basic techniques you can make rpetty much any ribbon bow you could possible thing of.
Hope you enjoyed this and on the off chance that Sandy ever reads this: I miss taking photos at pretty buildings with you big sister!
More scraps, more hair bows XD This time its a typical JD style double fabric bow. This is another one which has been sitting on my reader’s request list for so long that I can’t find who originally requested it >_< If it was you I’m sorry and let me know in the comments so I can update this!
End result:
What you need:
Fabric (scraps are usually enough)
Scissors, needle, thread
Sewing machine/overlocker if you don’t want to hand stitch
Pen or something pointy
Cut your pieces out first. You need 2 large rectangles, 2 slightly smaller rectangles and a little one for the middle tie.
Place the two sets of rectangles on top of each other, good sides of the fabric facing in.
Stitch around 3 and 1/2 sides of the first rectangle set. I used an overlocker but you can do it on a sewing machine or hand stitch just as easily.
Repeat on the other set of rectangles and also on the long sides of the middle tie.
So you should have something like this where one side has a gap in it…
Open that gap up a bit…
And turn the rectangle inside out.
You’ll get something like this:
Using the tip of a pen or something pointy, poke inside and use it to wiggle the corners into points.
Now you have something like this:
Repeat on the other rectangle set.
Thread your needle.
Next fold the edges of the hole inside so it fits with the rest of the side.
Stitch it shut!
And now you’ve got this…
Put the small one on top of the large one.
Pinch in the middle so it forms a crease.
Stitch the crease in place. I generally just wrap the thread around the middle.
Time to cover it up.
Take the left over piece and fold the edges in towards the middle.
Wrap it around the thread in the middle.
Stitch the back of it in place!
Add a clip or brooch to the back and that’s it!
Fabric choice matters a lot with these bows, they generally look better with stiff fabric like this cord or thick satin as it holds shape better. From here you could easily decorate with pearls, extra ribbons or anything you like. I think this fabric looks nice enough as is though because it had a fairly busy pattern already.
Illustrator. Strong tea, knitting, watercolours, and making a video game called Moonlight in Garland. Living with her adorable husband Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.
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