bows. bows. bows.

bows make lovely little presents.

I adore hairbows. 

I'm not entirely sure where this all stems from, but all I know is that the moment I discovered them I never turned back.  Apparently it wasn't completely my decision either, there are images of me at a very young age proudly wearing a variety of big fluffy hairbows.  I'm sure this surprises no one.

So, of course what could be sweeter than making your own little hairbows?  Not a whole lot.  This little project was the result of my darling little cousin's ninth birthday.  Although we had celebrated her birthday earlier in the month with large amounts of presents and cake I still wanted something special to hand her on the actual day.

The logical result was hairbows.  I think I may have babysat her a few too many times when she was younger, as she has adopted a few of my more quirky habits, namely hair twirling, a very large collection of headbands and a huge amount sass.

This  D.I.Y was adapted from this little bow belt project I had made earlier in May.  They were super quick to make, three took 20 minutes.  My cousin got the blue one but I got the black and red ones, which are somewhat reminiscent of Madeline...maybe I've been reading too many french children's books.  Maybe this explains something.

Pick some lovely, cheerful fabric.

Cut a strip that is 10" by 3.5".  If you want a bigger, fluffier bow cut the strip wider, ie. 6".

Fold the strip in half lengthwise, right sides together, and stitch.  Press and turn inside out, pressing flat.

Stitch short ends together.  Press seam and turn so seam is on inside.  Press flat.

Cut a smaller 2" by 3.5" strip and sew in the same way as above, stitching the length, pressing and turning inside out.  Wrap smaller piece around the centre of the larger piece tightly so that it looks like a bow.  Mark how how the shorter piece needs to be and sew the short ends together.  Make sure it's not too small, the fabric does need to fit through the centre!

Pull the larger folded piece through the smaller ring.  It helps if you start with a corner.  Centre the smaller piece and fluff, you're pretty much done!

yay your sweet little bow is finished!  While you're at it you my as well make a few extra ones.

Now it's time to turn it into a hair clip.  Search through all the drawers in your house until you find some random ugly hair clips you never wear anymore. 

Glue them to the back of your hairbow with a glue gun and you're done.  How very sweet!

She now has one more to add to her collection! She's just the cutest, and has the best hair.  A love of purple and blue hair seems to be genetic...xo.