I could've sworn a while back several of you (I seem to remember Colleen and Jayne specifically) posting links to ebay sellers who make cute hair bows/corker type things, but cannot find it tonight. Am I crazy?

I've bought a couple at a local resale shop that the owner made herself, but the corkers were just tied to hair elastics and I'm tired of retying them. I'm considering buying metal barrettes to hot glue them to, but then wondered just how hard it would be to make them myself. The woman told me she used fabric stiffener on the ribbon to keep it's shape. I have several spools of ribbon I bought (narrow ribbon) to just tie bows, and wondered if I could use that?

Any tips/tricks info would be greatly appreciated!! I don't want super huge bows, but something to really accent Emily's hair would be great. I love the Gymbo style barrettes as well, but I think tying the loops tightly enough would be hard.....argh.

They're not hard to make at all. I"ve made lots of them :) You get a wooden dowel rod from wal-mart, hardware store, wherever, in whatever size you want and then you saturate the ribbon (grosgrain ribbon is the best :aok: ) with spray starch and then put them on a cookie sheet and bake them in the oven for a little while. it sets the spray starch and they keep their shape better. the smaller the dowel, the smaller the curl, the longer they last :)

:aok: Thanks Shanna!! I'm going grocery shopping alone tomorrow, so I think I'll sneak in a trip to the fabric aisle at WalMart. This'll give me something to do this weekend. So then I can get bags of the metal barrettes, and just hot glue the bows to them, right?

oh, and set the oven at what, 250 or so?

I put it about 350 when I make them. Your best bet for attaching them to the barette is to use florist's wire, twist it to the barette then wrap a piece of the ribbon around the wire and then glue it to make sure you don't have any sharp edges or bumps. Put it underneath the rounded part of the barette (if you use the metal kind that flip open when you squeeze the ends :nod: ) and that way you don't have to worry about snagging a finger on the wire or bump in the ribbon :)

sounds good...the barrette you described is just what I'm looking for, as I have a couple of those that A) don't bother her and B) DH can remove on his own.

I'm excited now!! I have all this gorgeous ribbon I bought for her and now I can design my own bows....:woo:

They're not hard to make at all. I"ve made lots of them :) You get a wooden dowel rod from wal-mart, hardware store, wherever, in whatever size you want and then you saturate the ribbon (grosgrain ribbon is the best :aok: ) with spray starch and then put them on a cookie sheet and bake them in the oven for a little while. it sets the spray starch and they keep their shape better. the smaller the dowel, the smaller the curl, the longer they last :)


Wow I had no clue how to make them. :lol: I'd love to once Madison gets more hair. :lol: I can only put the back in a pony tail now, still waiting.

I make hairbows and love doing it!! I have *tons* of ribbon too :lol: Its so fun having girls :)

I make hairbows and love doing it!! I have *tons* of ribbon too :lol: Its so fun having girls :)

Even more reason this baby has to be a girl. :lol:

Shanna, I am so glad I have two of them!! Molly doesn't have enough hair yet for bows, but Emily's is loooong. Here's some pics of a couple of her bows that I bought from the lady who makes them

this one is just ribbon looped with florist's wire to the barrette. The woman who made it said she won't do more because they hurt her hands. :dunno:
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5d934b3127cce92b90a9b648c00000016108AZs2jhq3ctF

hmm...guess I don't have any pics of her with the corkers bows, but oh well...I have a starting point now!

I make those kinds all the time :lol: I'll post some of the ones I've made, hang on...

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4cf31b3127cce9b27a4c4251800000016108BcOGbVqya-
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4cf31b3127cce9b27a4c3a42f00000016108BcOGbVqya-
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4cf31b3127cce9b27a4cda42100000016108BcOGbVqya-

ooooh, those are fancy!!! I'll have to work up to that level of talent I'm sure. :lol:

I don't have much on this computer :lol:

Shanna.. You are so talented you are making me look bad!!! :tongue2:

:lol: necessity is the mother of invention :lol:

:lol: necessity is the mother of invention :lol:

True Very True!!!

hairbows for little girls are very necessary :nod:

Amy,

Here's a link I bookmarked for making korkers:

http://www.korkersandmore.com/

Don't just glue the ribbon on. It comes off, believe me. I've gotten some excellent quality bows off someone from Ebay and she sewed them on, so use the Floral wire like Shanna said or sew them.

Amy,

Here is that thread too:

http://www.onceuponalife.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17907

Colleen, thanks for the info page!! Definitely a lot more work than I envisioned, but I'm so glad I saw that before DH cut my dowels into 9" lengths. I'll have to go get some wooden clothespins, but other than that I'm pretty set.

Oops. I forgot to tell you about the clothespins :lol: Sorry!

BTW, I got some interesting results when I used a square dowel rod. They were unique looking, for SURE!

OK, another question...in the instructions that Colleen referred to, it doesn't mention spraying the ribbons with starch or anything, but I'm sure it's necessary...I can't see the heat of the oven being enough to curl the ribbons and keep them curled otherwise. :dunno:

Clothespins are on their way...my best friend is coming down this afternoon and she said her mom has a zillion, so I asked her to bring me 20 or so!

I experimented until I fuond the right amount of starch. It is definitely necessary, otherwise the curl will come out :nod:

Shanna, do you use the spray starch (like for ironing) or the liquid starch?

I use spray starch and then I fray-check the ends of the ribbon so they don't fray :nod:

:aok: Thanks Shanna!! I bought some heavy duty spray starch, DH just cut my dowel rod, so we'll see how this turns out. I'm experimenting with ribbon, and realized just how paltry my ribbon selection is, so guess I'll be hitting hobby lobby again! :lol:

Make sure you're using grosgrain. I used satin ribbon a few times just to see and it didn't work well :lol: Too flimsy :nod: I can't wait to see what you come up with :yippee:

Uggh I am so jealous! Brookelyn barely has any hair. I did finally find a clip that will stay in her hair from www.noslippy.com (http://www.noslippy.com) ! Nothing else stays because she's still so bald!