Simple Fabric Bow Sewing Tutorial

For the fabric bows you will need the following supplies:

• fabric (1/4 yard or a smaller scrap)
• Rotary cutter or scissors
• Sewing Machine
• Coordinating thread
• Iron
• Scissors

The first thing you want to do is cut your fabric to size. I am using the fabric on the left to make a bowtie for my son and the fabric on the right to make a hair bow for my 10 month old daughter. I wanted the bowtie to be bigger than the hair bow. Determine what you want your width to be and use that to figure out the height. Take your width plus one inch. So…. for my bowtie the width is 6 inches and height is 7 inches. For my hair bow the width is four 4 inches by 5 inches. You also need to cut a piece for the middle that is 3 inches tall by 2 inches wide. If you want the middle part to be wider then make it bigger than two inches. Take your larger piece and fold it over so that the right sides are touching (fold it so that the height is now half of what you originally calculated). Now my argyle piece should measure 6 inches by 3.5 inches and my chevron piece should measure 4 inches by 2.5 inches. Iron. Take your folded piece over to the sewing machine and sew up the three raw edges leaving a one inch gap in the middle so you can turn your bow right side out. (Sew where I marked with white lines.) Once you have sewn it use scissors to cut the corners off, but don’t cut into the stitches you just made. (Cut where I marked with red lines.) Turn your bow right side out through the one inch gap that we left. Then fold the unsewn edge in and press with the iron. Take it to the sewing machine and top stitch it. Now your piece should look like the picture below. A rectangle slightly wider than it is tall. Now we are going to use the smaller piece we cut for the middle of the bow. Fold it in half lengthwise so that it is 3 inches tall and 1 inch wide. Sew up the open side leaving the ends open. Turn it right side out, move the seam to the center, fold the raw edges in a bit and press. Now I like to wrap the middle piece around the bow (see picture 1 below) to get a feel for the size. If it seems to long to me then I snip a little off (but remember you still need to allow room to sew the two open ends together.) Take the piece and fold it so that the seem is facing out and the open ends are aligned. Sew them together as shown in picture 2 below. Turn the piece right side out so that the seems will be hidden. I hate this part – I think it is the hardest part of making the bow because it turns into this bellybutton looking thing (as seen in photo 3 below) and your fingers fumble around like you have giant hands trying to figure it out. I usually break down and use a clothespin or sewing pin to help me out a bit. Then (as seen in photo 4) tada your done. The hardest part is out of the way.   Now you need to twist up your large rectangle piece and pull it through your little center piece. You might find yourself folding and rolling it in different ways to get it through. This is the next hardest step after the bellybutton one. Have you ever twisted a straw wrapper to tickle someone’s nose? LOL Use that technique to squeeze the larger piece through the center one and enlist the help of a clothespin again (hands down it works!!). To get rid of your stray threads quickly run a lighter across them. It will give you more of a professional, finished look. Use whatever you would like on the back to turn your fabric bows into bow ties, hair bows, hair clips or even make them into a garland. Once you feel comfortable experiment with the sizes and create layered bows or big huge ones! Enjoy,
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