Halloween Hair Bows ~Tutorial(s)

We live in a tall building in the city, so that means a) no front porch to decorate and b) not much storage space. (SIGH) So when it comes to the holidays, we are very limited with what we can do to decorate. (Our condo building prohibits any sort of decoration on our patio and on our door that leads to the hallway, for example.) So we buy pumpkins to carve because you can't have Halloween without a Jack-o-lantern, but that's about it. 

Except I CAN decorate my children. My daughter is quite amenable to receiving and wearing holiday hair bows. I can get my decorating fix, and she can look cute wearing my efforts. :)

Of course in this shots, she has just played on the playground and her hair is not so smooth and shiny, but I'm basically happy enough for getting her hair in two pony tails for dance class. And, of course, for inserting my new Fabric Halloween Hair bows.

Mini-tutorial:

Cut several squares of orange-yellow-white fabric with pinking shears. Cut various sizes.

Start with the biggest and fold like an accordion.

Stack fabric squares/accordions on top of each other to form Xs until all the gaps are covered.

Use thread to secure the fabric pieces together.

Hot glue a pom-pom to the center.

Hot glue an alligator clip or barrette to the bottom.

Trim any extra-long edges.

Stick them in your girl's hair and admire.

And now for some other ideas for hair bows. I put together the next several hair clips all this past weekend and had a blast coming up with different styles.

Love this one.

Start with a rectangle of fabric (mine is jersey hounds tooth). Hand sew the center with two stitches. Hot glue the tall feathers to the back, then the bow into place. Finish by gluing on a pearl. Elegant!

Start again with a rectangle of fabric and sew the center accordion style with a couple stitches. For this one, I cut up a feather and glued one half on the top, and the other half on the bottom like a tail. Then I tied a knot in some ribbon and hot glued it into place. Funky-elegant!

Ah, tulle. I folded a strip of black tulle in half then crunched it up accordion style and stitched it together with a fabric hounds tooth bow. Then I made an orange ribbon bow and used ribbon to wrap all the way around the three layers, securing at each step with a drop of hot glue.

Here's a look at a couple of the backs. For some, I lined alligator clips and hot-glued them on. For others, I sewed barrettes into place, then secured them with hot glue on each end. I like both styles for different reasons. (You can get both clips and barrettes on etsy.)

Thanks for visiting! Are you going to give these hair bows a try? I promise they do not take long at all. Warm up that glue gun and get going. (And a bit of advice: keep a small bowl of cold water nearby for your fingers...just in case you singe one of them. Not that that ever happen to me...) I'd love to see what you make - feel free to leave me a link in the comments below and I'll be sure to check out your creations!

Have a wonderful week!

I'll be linking up with some of these fine parties too.