Head band hair bow tutorial

Today, I am showing a tutorial for how to make this sweet bow.  I am using several different techniques that I have found on the web.  Whereas the individual layer ideas are not my own, I have styled the layers together and that is my own creation.  Here is where I found some info on the layers: folded flowers, satin layered flower.

Start with a small circle of felt fabric.  This will be your backing for the entire bow.  I use the felt fabric squares from Hobby Lobby that are 4 for $1.  I can get dozens of cuts from one of these sheets.  The circle is about 1 1/2 inches wide.

Next, cut three small stair step circles out of poly satin.  (I have not tried this effect with real satin so I'm not sure how it would work.)  My circles here are 3 1/2 inches, 3 inches and 2 1/2 inches.

While you have the satin out, go ahead and cut four 5 inch circles.  These all need to be the same size (approximately).  I'm not a perfectionist so I don't measure.  I just go for it.  Of course, I'm a live-on-the-edge kind of gal.  As you can see, my circle isn't exactly perfect, but it all works out great anyway.

With your 5 inch satin circle, fold it in half and place a dob of glue on the two pieces you are joining together.  (In this picture, it is to the right of my thumb along the edge.)

With the same piece of fabric, fold it in half again and place another dob of glue where the two ends meet.  It should look like this.

Here is another image from a different angle of what your piece should look like.

Now, grab the piece of felt you cut in the beginning and glue one tip of the satin pieces you just made.  Continue going around the felt until you have all four pieces glued down.

It should look like this.

Let's move on to the smaller satin circles.  Hold one in your hand and with a lighter, barely singe the edges.  This will cause the fabric to do a sort of ruffle.  That is the look we are going for.  (Shout out to my Annie for holding the satin circle so I could take a pic and do the lighter part.) :)

When you have singed all the edges of the smaller satin circles, they should look something like this.  The more close you get with the fire, the more ruffled your pieces will look.  Also, I have seen people actually burn the edges.  It gives a dark edge to your flower.  That look probably wouldn't work very well with white but it looks nice on the darker colors.

You will take your three ruffled satin pieces and stack them nice and even, one on top of the other.  Put a small dot of glue in the middle of each one.  It will look like this.

Now for the tulle ruffle.  Go to your sewing machine.  Choose the longest stitch lengths possible on your machine.

Then, find your tension setting and choose the tightest tension your machine offers.

Begin sewing.  As you sew the tulle, you will see that it begins to ruffle.  This is what we are looking for.

When you are finished sewing your tulle, it will resemble a misshapen ball. :)

Grab the ends and use a small amount of hot glue to bind them.  This should make something that resembles the above picture.  Now, it's time to assemble the hair bow!  For this step, you simply layer the tulle on top of the four satin folded pieces.  Then, glue the three stacked circles on top of the glue.

Personally, I like to use small elastic for my band.  I like the way it looks and it's super cheap.  I believe this elastic was 29 cents a yard at Hancock.  Once I'm done gluing down the elastic, I usually go back and lay another piece of felt on top of the elastic to make it have a finished look.

And here is the finished result.  I add some sort of embellishment to the center of my pieces to give them a little more texture.  You could use a brooch, rhinestones, buttons, or any other little doodad you have laying around.