How to make a bow

For Thanksgiving I decorate my outside a little bit.  I hang a wreath or two and put some hay bales on the porch.
This year I decided to take an old wreath and rip off all the old plastic stuff and make a new one.
The wreath I used was straw.  I got the jute wrapping from Hobby Lobby - on sale for $1.99 for 9 feet.  I also bought the ribbon at Hobby Lobby - in the clearance section for $4.00 for 25 feet.  The ribbon is wire edge which is important because you can manipulate it better.  So for $6.00 plus a bit of tax I have a nice new wreath.  You could buy a wreath from the dollar store so then your total would be $7.00.  Still pretty cheap.

OK step 1:
Wrap the wreath:
I used craft glue and a couple of straight pins. I glued the end down then just wrapped the wreath then glued again and put some straight pins in to hold it all in place. I used Tacky Glue.

Next make the bow.  I hope this is going to make sense, these bows turn out great and you can make them as big or as small as you want.  

Making a bow.

1 - make a loop as large as you want the bow to be.

Then you just keep going in a circle wrapping the ribbon around the loop.  Make it as thick as you want.  This is about 5 times around. 

Now fold it in half

On the end where you made the fold you are going to cut each side on an angle.  Since the ribbon is wire edge make sure you use sharp scissors!

Don't worry about being neat, as you can see above mine isn't even.  This is what it looks like when you unfold it.

Now take another length of ribbon.  I use my arm for a guide, yep my arm.  I do two times my arm but it depends on how much ribbon you want hanging down on the item.  

Wrap it around the section of the folded ribbon and make a knot. 

Make sure the knot is tight!

Start at one end and hold the ribbon at the looped end. Starting at the INSIDE pull the ribbon out and toward you to the right - it could be the beginning of the ribbon and not a loop.  Then grab the next INSIDE loop and pull it out to the left.  Continue until all the ribbon has been pulled out.  It should look like this.

Now do the same to the other side of the looped ribbon.  It should come out looking like this.  You may need to fluff it a bit using the wire on the edges to poof (that's a technical word there!) the loops!

Then you are going to tie the bow to your wreath.

Finally I used the end of a wooden spoon to curl the left-over ribbon.

Then I hung it on the front door!  I think it looks great.

These bows are easy to make and you can make them big or small, you can wrap them around anything!  You don't necessarily need to use wire edge ribbon to make these, any wide ribbon can be used.  I hope everyone tries this bow.  If you need help just let me know!