Explore Ribbon: How to Make a Handmade Bow

1. Introduction: [MUSIC] Have you ever wanted to learn how to make a bow? Whether you're looking to add a little extra flourish to your gift wrapping or a nice textile accent to your home decor, learning how to hand-make a bow is an awesome skill to learn. Hand-making bows gives you an opportunity to create a bow with your unique style. Plus a great way to get to know the different ribbon materials is by practicing making a bow. When we make a bow, we have to twist, bend, and fold our ribbon so we can see how it reacts, how it works, how easy it is to work with and whether it's something we want to add to our creative toolbox. If you've ever wanted to learn how to work with ribbon and how the hand-make a bow, then this class is right for you. Hi, I'm Lauren Weber. I'm a fiber artist, quilter, and horticulturalist from New York. I love experimenting and playing with fibers, threads and you guessed it, ribbon. But in order to get creative with our materials, first we need to learn how they work. In this class, I will guide you step-by-step through the bow-making process. We will cover which factors to consider before making your bow, like size and durability so that we can make sure we set up your bow for success. By the end of this class, you'll be able to strategize which bow-making tools, techniques, and materials you want to use for making your bow. This class is for all skill levels and while hand-making bows can sometimes be a little bit tricky, there are some good techniques we can use to make the process easier. Creatives, fiber artists DIY'ers, this is your chance to learn a little bit more about ribbon and see if you want to add it to your creative toolbox. By the end of this class, you'll not only have new bow-making skills, but you'll also have a growing knowledge of ribbon techniques that you can use for your other creative projects. Whether you're making party bows, wedding bows, home decor bows, or simply broadening your ribbon knowledge, learning how to make your own bows can add a unique, creative twist and your own style to your projects. If you're ready to get started, if you're ready to learn how to hand-make your own bows, join me for this class. I'll see you in the first lesson. [MUSIC] 2. Class Project: [MUSIC] For your class project, you are going to design and create a bow. You get to pick whichever type of project you want to add your bow to. You can decide where and how you're going to use your bow. Maybe you want to add it to a birthday gift, or maybe you want to add it to a seasonal wreath in your home or some home decor. Whichever project you choose, you're going to design a bow to work with that project. To make your bow, you're going to choose your ribbon and material, you are going to choose which technique you'd like to use to make your bow, and you're also going to choose which size would be appropriate for your project. Once you're all done making your bow, you're going to take a picture and upload it to your class project, it's that simple. In the next lesson we're going to talk about some of the different materials you may encounter and some of the different fabrics you may see as you're looking for which ribbon to use for your project. So if you're ready to get started, I'll see you in the next lesson. [MUSIC] 3. Supplies: Ribbon & Tool Selection: In this lesson, we're going to talk about some of the materials you may encounter for your project. Keep in mind that the material that ribbon is made out of varies. The first category we're going to talk about are the classics, these are the grow grain poly ribbon or curling ribbon bows, they are classics. They tend to be easier to work with, and they can sometimes even be a more affordable option than some of the more luxurious materials you may encounter. You'll often find these ribbons used for flower arrangements, parties, or even gift wrapping. These materials are a good place to start when you're first learning how to make a bow. Now let's talk about the more luxurious and delicate ribbons, we're talking satin, silk, lace, or ganza tool, the more delicate materials you may encounter when you're looking for your ribbon, and while these materials tend to be gorgeous, they can sometimes be a little bit more challenging to work with. They tend to be thin, sometimes shear or see-through, or perhaps they are woven in a way that's very delicate where the fibers are all exposed. They can be easier to rip or tear when you're working with them. They can't be held up to quite so much bending and twisting without starting to break down a bit. Some of these materials are shiny and sleek, which can make them harder to hold onto when you're twisting and turning and creating your bow. Now, these ribbons exude just an elegant, beautiful style, so if that's the style you're looking for, these are the ribbons you're probably going to want to check out. They great for weddings, parties, luxurious home decor, hair bows, wrist corsages, and elegant bouquets. They're often made from just simply beautiful materials and they can be pretty exciting to work with once he gets some practice. The last category we're going to talk about, are our heavier materials, we're talking burlap, poly mesh, velvet. These ribbons tend to be thicker, heavier, and a little bit more durable. You'll often see these materials used for outdoor reeds, or decor, or holiday materials. The thickness of these materials can be a little bit challenging at first because they're a little bit harder to twist and bend. They aren't as malleable as some of the softer materials, but these materials are a great option when you need something that will really hold up to the elements. Now keep in mind that technology has come a long way with ribbon. Most of these ribbons can be printed in different colors, sizes, and even unique patterns, meaning you can choose your own unique style, color palette in size for the project that you're working on. This is going to give you a wide range of design and style options for your project. Ribbon can also be produced as wired or not wired. If a ribbon is wired, wires are actually encased along the edges of the length of the ribbon, which makes the ribbon material a little bit more malleable, a little bit easier to twist and bend, and if you've never made a ribbon before or this is your first time trying making a bow, I highly recommend starting out with a wired ribbon. It'll just make the process so much easier to have a wired ribbon when you're learning the twisting and folding techniques to making a bow, later on you can always advance to a non-wired ribbon or try out some other materials. There are a few other materials you're going to need, you're going to need a way to bind or hold your bow. Most often, I use floral wire, but you can also use chenille stems, you can use twist ties or string. If your wires are going to be exposed at all or if they're going to be used to anchor your bow to another object say, a handrail, I don't want to use exposed floral layer because it might scratch the wood. Instead I'll use a chenille stem or twist tie, which is going to protect the wood and it's going to protect the surface just a little bit more. Think about which item you want to use to bind your bow together. The other material you're going to want to think about is hot glue, depending on how you make your bow, you may want to wrap the center of your bow and if you do, hot glue is going to come in handy. Now is a great time to explore which materials you like best, which ones don't quite work well for you. There is no right or wrong answer, whichever materials you use, it's just a matter of if they're going to work well for your projects. If you're ready to get started and talking about the size of your bow, how you're both going to be used, then go on ahead and move on to the next lesson. I'll see you there. 4. Designing a Bow: Style, Form & Function: [MUSIC] Welcome back. In this lesson we're going to talk about designing the right bow for your project. First, let's talk about the structure of bow. bow has three main parts. It has the loops, which are the main body of the bow. A lot of times you'll see either single loops. You can think of a classic hair bow or multiple loops on each side of the center of the bow, you have the bow loops and you have the bow Center. Sometimes the center is just where your wire or your anchor is going to be to hold those loops in place. Sometimes you're going to have a wrapped center. The third and final part of your bow are going to be Tails. Now, some bows have tails and some bows do not. The tails are generally going to hang down from the center of your bow. Traditionally there are two tails, but of course you can always add more. Sometimes they're trimmed to be stylized. You might see the tails at the bottoms cut at a diagonal or cut with a V, the styling is up to you, so now that you know the structure of a bow, Let's talk about some key design factors that are going to impact how you choose the ribbon for your project. The first thing you're going to want to consider is the scale or size of your bow. How big of a bow do you want to make? Imagine placing a really big bow on top of this small gift box. It doesn't quite feel right? Does it know? Makes sure that you're choosing a bow that's going to be a good size that's appropriate for your project. If the bows main statement piece then okay, you can flourish it up a bit but otherwise, I personally like using bows to just accentuate my project. Now ribbons come in different size, width. You're going to find ribbons that come and thinner widths. And you're going to find ribbons are becoming thicker widths. The width of the ribbon matters. If you choose a wider ribbon, you're going to need fewer loops to cover more space. Whereas if you choose a thinner ribbon you're going to need a lot more loops to cover the same amount of space. Generally, wider ribbon is good for bigger bows because you'll use less ribbon to cover the area. Wider ribbons tend to make older, bigger impact. Thinner ribbons are really good if you want a little bit more of a delicate style and speaking of ribbon size, you can generally check the side of your ribbon role to see what length is on that spool or that role, and that's going to be important if you're making more than one bow or if you have multiple bows to make, you know how much ribbon you're going to need for your project and how many rolls that you're going to need to complete your project. Another thing to keep in mind is material strength. Some materials are going to be more durable than others. Something like burlap is going to be a lot stronger than something like silk or satin. Keep in mind how your project's going to be used and whether it needs to be able to weather. The weather, it's going to be exposed to snow or rain or wind, harsh light than keep in mind that you may need to either swap out your bow regularly or freshen it up. You're also going to want to consider how much stress the bows is going to be underwrite. If you have a wrist got tie and someone who's going to say a dance, you're going to want to make sure [LAUGHTER] that bow is made nice and tight. It's not going to just fall apart even with a lot of moving and dancing and action and all the meeting greeting that comes with having a celebration. The same is going to be true for your wrap materials, right? If you're going to be wrapping your bow with a wire, sometimes that wire can cause a little bit of damage. It can rough up paint or it can scratch things. You may want to use something like a Chanel stem that's going to be a little bit fluffier or twist tie that's going to be a little bit less exposed than just a wire for your project. You're also going to want to think about whether or not your ribbon can support itself, is it wired or is it not wired? Is it a thicker material that can hold itself up your loops can stay nice and full. Something like star and doesn't support itself very well. It can create delicate, smaller looped bows. But if you need a larger bow with longer loops, they tend to flop. They won't hold their place quite so well, consider how your ribbon size, color, texture, pattern plays into the theme of your project. Are you making a wedding bow? Maybe you want to use a beautiful, sunny, silky texture bow or a delicate tool bow. Are you looking to make kids hair bows? Maybe you want a fun pattern theme or more rustic bow. Maybe burlap is going to be your friend, choose your ribbon print, color, texture, and size to coordinate with your project. Think about the bigger picture as you're starting to put together your tools and your supplies. Before we dive into a few for making Techniques, we want to talk about how we can estimate the size of our bow before we make it. This will give you a good indication of how much ribbon you're going to need for your project and how many rolls of ribbon you're going to need for your project, and if you're making more than one bow, this will give you a good idea of how much driven total you're going to need for your project. If you're ready to get started on how to estimate the size of your bow before you make it. Meet me in the next lesson, I'll see you there. [MUSIC] 5. Project Planning: Ribbon Prep & Measurements: [MUSIC] Before we dive into a few bow making techniques, we want to talk about how we can estimate the size of our bow before we make it. This will give you a good indication of how much ribbon you're going to need for your project and if you're making more than one bow, this will give you a good idea of how much ribbon in total you're going to need for your project. What we're going to want to do to estimate what bow size we're going to make, is we're going want to mock up a bow. We're going to use a very light folding technique to just mock up our bow to see if it's going to be about the right size. After we mock up our bow, we're going to be able to measure out that length of ribbon to see how much ribbon total we're going to need for that bow. If you have extra bows that you need to make, you'll be able to use that length of ribbon as a template to cut out the rest of your ribbons before we go on to making and twisting all of our bows. The key to making a good mockup bow is to have as little waste as possible, aka, we don't want to do a ton of damage to our bow. We don't want to crease it or dent it in case we decide that we want to change how our is coming together. To do this, you're going to gently hold the ribbon between your thumb and your forefinger and you're going to make the first leap of your bow. This is going to be half of the width of your overall bow. The next thing you're going to do is make a loop of equal size, but going in the exact opposite direction. Continuing to hold the ribbon with your thumb and your forefinger, go on ahead and make another loop in the opposite direction. Careful not to bend or crease your ribbon as you're creating these first few loops. You're going to just gently continue to lay the ribbon on top of the other loops. But each time you add a new loop, you're going to slowly make the loops just slightly smaller than the previous. This way, your loops are going to have a little bit more dimension. Not all your loops are going to be all the same size. It's going to give your bow just a little bit more character. Don't worry if your ribbon is printed and you can only see half of the print. We're not worried about that right now. We don't want to twist or crease our bow right now. We just want to make sure that the size is right, that our loop sizes are right, and that we're happy with the overall fullness of our bow. Once you have your ribbon loops stacked, you're going to take a look at your bow. You can move the outer loops just a little bit to get a feel for how your bow will fill in. If you're happy with your bow, awesome. This is going to be the length of the ribbon that you need for the loops on your project. If you think that your loop is going to be a little bit bigger or smaller, now is the time to adjust. Now, don't cut your ribbon, just keep it all one continuous length. That way, you can use this length of ribbon as a template for when you go to cut your project. Next, you're going want to consider your tails. Do you want your bow to have tails? If you do, you're going to want to measure out the length of one tail. Once you have that length measured out, you're going to go ahead and double it to give you your second tail. Of course, if you want multiple tails, keep measuring out tail lengths, until you're happy. For a larger bow like this, I tend not to wrap the center, but if you do want your center wrapped, you're going to want to add a few extra inches to your bow to make sure that it can cover from the back of your bow, across the front and around to the backside again. Now you're going to add up the measurement for your loops, your tails, and your center, if you've chosen to wrap your center, and the sum of those three measurements is going to be the total length you need to make one bow. If you need to make multiple bows, then you're going to multiply that length out by the number of bows you're going to need. Now, remember earlier when I mentioned that the side of the ribbon roll generally provides a length, so how much ribbon is on that roll? You're going to check the side of the roll to see how many rolls you're going to need to make your bow or multiple bows. Now, if you need to cut multiple bows in order to keep them all consistent length and save yourself some time, you can bulk batch, cutting your ribbon. You can use that initial length as a template to cut the rest of your ribbon lengths, so that you know they're all the same size. Then you can go ahead and just keep twisting and making your bows without having to stop and cut more ribbon in-between. Keep in mind that if you're making multiple bows that have different ribbon widths or being used with different ribbons, you may need to mock up each ribbon type, because the width of the ribbon is actually going to change how much ribbon you're going to need per bow. If you're going to use your ribbon-like templates, use them for ribbons that are the same width. If you want to include a ribbon that's a different width, then go on ahead and mock up a new bow template for you to use to cut at that new ribbon width. Creating a mockup bow will give you a good idea of how big your bow is going to be. That way, you can make sure it's appropriately size for your project. It will also give you a good idea for how much ribbon you're going to need in order to make your bow or bows. Now, don't worry if the first one you make isn't quite the size you hope for, we can always add a few extra loops or we can take some away. I'll step you through the bow making process in the next couple of lessons so that you can see how we put all of this information together. If you're ready to get started making your bows, I'll see you in the next lesson [MUSIC] 6. Making a Bow: The Twist Method: [MUSIC] The first ribbon technique we're going to cover is the twist method. Now, this method is a very similar to how we made our mock-up though. But instead of laying our loops flat, we're actually going to twist between changing sides of the center of our loops. This method is easiest with wired ribbon. If you've never made a handmade bow before or if you just want an easy way to get started, I'm going to recommend practicing this technique with wired ribbon. This technique requires a little bit of hand grip and some conflict gripping. If you're using a thicker ribbon it may be tougher to hold the ribbons in place. If you're using a teeny tiny ribbon, there will be some dexterity. You need to make sure that those twists are going to be just in the right place. If you're using a wired ribbon and you accidentally let go, if your fingers start moving while you're getting used to the process those wires will generally hold your loops so that they'll be easier to put back together and pick right up where you left off. This technique may take a few tries to really get into a good rhythm, but with a little bit of practice, it becomes easier. If you're ready to try it out, here's how it works. If you marked up your bow, start with your measured piece of ribbon. If you're not worried about pretty measuring your bow, unwind some of the ribbon from the spool. If you're using a wired ribbon, trim the edge of your ribbon so the wires are not exposed. At this point, you should know whether or not your ribbon has a front side or backside or a printed side, or an unprinted side. Now keep in mind as you're using this technique, this technique is great for one-sided. Those are bows that are printed on one side or have a front face. You're going to want to make sure that that face stays on the outside of your loops. The non-printed side is going to be hidden on the inside of your loops. Now to make your bow, place the end of your ribbon between your thumb and your forefinger. If your bow is printed on one side, start with the non-printed side facing up. Leave enough space for your largest loop, and then bend the ribbon back down so that the printed side is facing up. While continuing to hold your loop, twist and pinch the ribbon at the center so that the printed side of your ribbon is facing down for your second loop. Create your second loop making sure it's just as long as the first. Bend the ribbon back to the center so the printed side is facing up. Again, twist and pinch at the center before making another loop. Continue making loops into your bow as the size and fullness of your liking. Generally, four to five loops on each side of the center will produce a nice size bow. Remember to make the loop slightly smaller with each round of loops that you create so that your loops are not all the same size. This will help with the fullness in the center of your bow. I'm going to go on ahead and continue making loops for this bow. I may speed things up just a little bit. I'll meet you once I'm done making loops [MUSIC] Keep in mind, the more loops you add to your bow, the more difficult it will be to hold onto those twists as you're making your bow. With some practice, this technique gets easier. Once you have all of your loops, continue pinching the bow in the center and take a piece of wire or chenille stem or a twist tie and wrap it around the center of your bow. I usually thread the wire between my forefinger and my middle finger to help me wrap it around the bow without pinching my fingers and while keeping everything nice and taut. Once your wire is mostly around the center of your bow, use it in place of your pinched fingers to grasp and hold your loops in place. Release your fingers and continued to pull that wire taut and twist that wire you're tight to hold your bows shape. Now gently adjust your loops to create fullness in your bow. Be careful not to bend or overwork your ribbon or else it might start to crease. You can place a finger or two gently in the loops to help work them around or you can anchor and pinch at the center of your bow in order to adjust those loops where you've already have a few creases anyway. [MUSIC] Then once you're all done adjusting your loops you now have a beautiful full bow. Now, this is not the only bow-making technique. The next technique is called the figure eight method. It's, I would say a little bit easier. What's nice about the twist method is that we have a little bit more control of exactly where our loops are going to be positioned. With the next technique, I'm going to show you it's a little bit simpler and we'll have quite so much character. But I think you're going to like it. If you're ready to check it out. Let's hop on over to the figure eight method. [MUSIC] 7. Making a Bow: The Wrap (Figure 8) Method: [MUSIC] Welcome, back. In this lesson, we're going to talk about the figure 8 method. The figure 8 method is another way to create your bows. In this method, your bowlets are all going to be the same size. I especially like using this technique for thinner ribbons. It helps to create nice, full, cute little bows, especially for projects like embroidery hoops or [inaudible]. This technique can be used for one-sided ribbon or two-sided ribbon. This one should be a little bit easier for you to hold than the twist method. If you're ready to get started, let's check it out. In this example, I am going to be using a larger ribbon that's printed on one side, so it'll be easier to see how this process works. If you have a ribbon that's printed on one side, be sure to keep the printed edge facing away from your fingers for the duration of this technique, and the non printed edge to be hidden against your fingers. To get started, you're going to be wrapping the ribbon around your fingers to form a figure 8. I like to use two fingers for one side of my loops and two fingers for the opposite loops. But you can use one finger on each side if you like. Start by anchoring the ribbon between your middle finger, and your fourth finger. With a printed side of your ribbon facing out, guide the ribbon around your middle finger, and index finger, and back to the center again. Once you reach the center between your middle finger and your fourth finger, gently turn the ribbon so the printed edges facing out as you continue to guide the ribbon around your fourth finger, and your fifth finger, and then back to the center again. Then you're going to twist the ribbon gently in the center between the loops so the pattern is facing out and continue to wrap this figure 8 motion around your fingers. Once you're happy with the number of loops in your bow, guide a wire between your middle and your fourth fingers to anchor your loops in place. Once the wire is wrapped around the ribbon, twist to secure. Use your fingers to adjust the bow loops until your bow is nice and full. [MUSIC] If your bow feels uneven or could use an extra loop or two, don't hesitate. It's okay to add an extra loop. Simply make an extra loop with your ribbon and tuck it into the wire and twist to secure. Then go on ahead and rearrange your loops to make sure that your bow is nice and full. [MUSIC] When you're all done, trim your ribbon and make any final adjustments. You can also use this technique with a thinner ribbon. Here's a quick look at what a thinner ribbon would look like with the figure 8 method. [MUSIC] I often use this technique for my embroidery hoop bows, because I'd like to give them a little extra blank at the top of my projects. It's a nice way to hide the little hook in the loop and to just make them look a little bit more refined in a little bit more finished. With this technique, your loops are all going to be the same size. In the twist method, we decrease the size of our loopses as we headed toward the center, which gives a little bit more coverage to the center of the bow. But in the figure 8 method, the method that we just talked about, all of the loops are the same size. A lot of times the center of your loops are going to be exposed. This may be a good time to wrap the center of your bow, and don't worry, we're going to talk about that in a couple of lessons. If you want to learn how to wrap the centers of your bow, never fear we're going to cover it. You can also, if you don't want to wrap the center of your bow, sometimes you can wedge in the center of your bow slightly, so pull it just a little bit deeper so that the loops fan out a little bit more, and the center of the bow recedes into the project, just giving you just that little bit of extra coverage. Once you've had some time to practice the figure 8 method, we're going to talk a little bit about adding tails to your project. If you're looking to add some extra tails to your bows, go on ahead and meet me in the next lesson. [MUSIC] 8. Adding Tails: Extra Flourish: [MUSIC] Awesome. So you've gotten some practice making some bows. Now it's time to talk about adding some tails to your bows. Now I'm going to show you two ways that you can add details to your bows. The first one is to just build them in. Instead of starting and just making your loops, what you're going to do is you're going to measure out one tail length before you get started making your loops. Then once you have one tail length from there, you're going to start twisting or figure aiding your loops until you're happy with your bow. Once you have enough loops, you're going to go ahead and leave the second tail length before anchoring your ribbon with wire. This will leave you with one long piece of ribbon that includes both your tails and your loops and is anchored with one piece of wire in the center. Your second option is to add tails after you create your bows. So if you've made your loops and now you want to add tails, you can do this by measuring out piece of ribbon that is double your tail length. Because you're going to need two tails. [MUSIC] You're going to take that ribbon length and you're going to fold it in half and you're going to take a piece of wire and you are going to wrap it around that length of ribbon in the center. You're going to give it a little twist to pinch and anchor it in place, then you are going to wrap that second piece of wire around the wire that is around the center of your bow and you're going to twist it together with the wire that is anchoring your loops. [MUSIC] If you're wondering how long you should make your tails, consider what you're going to be using your tails for. For example if the tails on your wrist corsage are too long, they might tickle or irritate the rest of the person who's wearing wrist corsage. So you want to make sure that those tails are a little bit shorter. Your other option is your tails don't just have to hang straight down. A lot of times I like twisting them and looping them and bending them into my project, especially for reads, garlands. I like bending and twisting my tails for my fiber art projects. If you need a little bit of extra length to cover the bending and the twisting, you're going to want to make your tails just a little bit longer so that you can account for folding your ribbon back into your project. You can also add additional tails. So if you want more than two tails, you can go ahead and keep adding more until you're happy with your project. Just keep in mind that if you use a separate piece of wire for every single set of tails that you add, that wire can start to get really bulky. So you may want to try to consolidate and add details to the single piece of wire. Now if you realize that you've made your tails too long, never fear. It's not going to be a problem. What you're going to do is you're just going to take the extra length on each tail and you're going to loop it back up toward the body of your bow. You're going to anchor those loops to the center of your project with the main way or that wrapped your original loops so that they look like two loops that you've added to your bow. That way, you're not wasting any ribbon and your bow just going to be a little bit fuller. If you found out that you cut your tails telling just a little bit too short, just add more. Now that we've talked about adding tails, we're going to talk about how you can wrap the center of your bow so that if you want to make your bow look a little bit more traditional or classic and have that nice, neat center not look. We'll make sure that we cover it in the next lesson. Once you're ready, go ahead and meet me there. [MUSIC] 9. Knotted Style: How to Wrap the Center: [MUSIC] In this lesson, we're going to talk about how to wrap the center of your bow to cover the wire that we use to hold your loops in place. Now, let me start by saying that you don't have to wrap the center of your bow. A lot of times especially if I'm using the twist method, I don't cover the center. But if you're looking for a more traditional bow look, or if you use the figure eight method and you've got a big gap in the center of your bow, this wrapping technique can come in handy just to make your project look a little bit more finished. Now, if you think about a classic bow, maybe a hair tie bow, or a shoe bow, a lot of times you're going to think of a knotted center of that bow. Sometimes those knots can come up a little bit warped or twisted. And so in order to make a nice clean cut look, we're going to go ahead and we're going to wrap ribbon around the center of our loops. So if you'd like an easy way to wrap the center of your ribbon, what you're going to do is cut just a little bit extra ribbon. You're going to need enough to make sure that you can wrap it from the back to the front and back around to the back again, and that it will cover all of the wires that are exposed. Your ribbon is really thin, you may need to wrap your ribbon around more than once. So when you're ready to get started, you're going to move your anchor wires just out of the way horizontally. You're going to just bring them away. So we're going to want to keep those exposed so that we can use them to tie our bow to whatever we're going to be doing for our project. And then what you're going to want to do is, put a dot of glue right in the center of that wire where they are crossing, where they are twisted. Then you're going to take one end of your ribbon and you're going to attach it where that glue is. Be careful if it's hot glue that you don't burn yourself. Make sure if it's really hot that you're using a tool or something that is safe to use around the high heat. You're then going to give it a second to set. You're going to wrap the ribbon all the way around until you reach the back of your project again. If you have thin ribbon you might have to go around more than once. Once your wire is fully covered, go ahead and add one extra dot the back of your project so that you can finish your ribbon wrap on the backside of your bow so it's not exposed, no one's going to see what you've worked on. If you have any extra ribbon, if you cut too long of length, just trim it up a little bit so that the glue and the edge is all on the backside of your bow. So once ribbon is wrapped, we're going to talk about how you can make multi-ribbon bows. We're going to take it up to the next level. So if you're ready to learn how you can use more than one ribbon for your project, go on ahead and meet me in the next lesson. [MUSIC] 10. Multi-Ribbon Bows: [MUSIC] Now that we've wrapped our bows, we've learned how to do that technique, the next technique that we're going to talk about is how to make multi ribbon bows. If you're anything like me, you like textures, you like fibers, so why stop at one ribbon? If you want to make a larger bow or more complex bow, you can actually add more than one ribbon to your project. I'm going to show you a couple of different techniques that you can use to make multi-ribbon bows. This is particularly fun for larger, more showy bows, but it can also be used for small, delicate bow, say, for risk score Sij where you want to get more than one texture, glitter shimmer into your project in a small space. I'm going to show you a couple of different techniques that you can use to add multiple ribbons to your project. The first method you can use is again the twist method. When you're using the twist method to do a multi-part bow, I'm going to recommend to create your outer loops with one ribbon type, and then you're going to make your inner loops with a second ribbon type. Let's take a peek at how this is going to look. You're going to start by making your larger loops with one type of ribbon [MUSIC]. When you're ready to switch to your next ribbon type, you're simply going to cut off that first type of ribbon. Keep holding in place with your fingers or if it's too much to hold, go ahead and tie off with your wire. Then you're going to start adding the second ribbon type. Continue adding loops and your ribbons until you're happy with the fullness of your project. Keep in mind that the more loops you stack up, the harder it's going to be to hold. It's okay to twist off some wire [LAUGHTER] between loops if it's starting to get hard to hold. In this technique, your ribbons are basically going to be stacked on top of each other to create one overall look. When you're ready, go ahead and twist that wire around the center to lock them all into one big bow unit. The second method I'm going to show you is the figure 8 method or the pinch method, depending on the size of your bow. If your bow is a little bit larger, you can use the figure 8 method with multiple fingers. You're going to be looping these ribbons simultaneously. You're going to stack them up and you're going to weave them through your figure eight at the same time. Or if you're making a tiny ribbons safer risk score Sij, you're just going to pinch in loop really small figure 8's using the ribbons. Now, these don't need to be super huge. Especially depending on your project, they can be a nice again delicate accent, or if it's a bigger project, you can go ahead and you're going to have a multi ribbon, beautiful bow. The loops are all going to be the same sizes but it's going to have a little bit more character than your general figure 8 ribbons because it's going to have more than one material or more than one texture color in the same unit. Now that we've talked about how to make multi-part bows using multiple ribbons, we're going to go ahead and cover how to use curly ribbon to make a fun party ready bow for your next project. If you're ready to learn how to use curly ribbon to make a bow, meet me in the next lesson. [MUSIC] 11. Making a Bow: Curly Ribbon: [MUSIC] Welcome back. If you're ready to use curly ribbon to make a bow, you're in the right place. In this lesson, we're going to cover how you can use curly ribbon, also known as balloon ribbon, to make an easy bow. Basically you're going to cut a whole bunch of lengths of your curly ribbon. Decide how you want to use your bow. Are you going to tape it onto a gift? Are you going to tie it to gift bag handles? However you decide to use this bow, it will have a similar structure to a traditional bow, loops and a center. In this example, I'm going to tie my ribbons to the handle of a gift bag. I'm tying these ribbons to the handle using the knot as the center of my bow. Now we have a group of a flat ribbons on each side of the knot that are going to become our loops. It's time to curl them. You're going to take a pair of scissors and using the back of the scissors you're going to run the back of the scissors right along the length of each of the curly ribbons. You're going to do that on both sides of the center of your ribbon. The more curly they are, the more full your loops are going to be, and the longer your balloon ribbon is, the longer your swirly loops are going to be. Some people like to open the scissors to cut the ribbon, I don't recommend this. It's much easier to get cut doing this. Just use the back of your scissors, it'll curl your ribbon just fine. Now you've got this beautiful twisty celebratory loopy balloon ribbon bow to jazz up your packages. Now that we've talked about how to use balloon ribbon, we're going to go ahead and talk about some modern looping techniques and other ways that you can use ribbon in your projects. If you're ready to talk about some other ways to use ribbon, meet me in the next lesson. [MUSIC] 12. A Twist on the Classics: Creative Loops: [MUSIC] Now that we've talked about all the different ways that we can make bows and all of the different materials we can use to make bows, I want to talk about other ways that we can use ribbon for our projects. Traditional classic bows are pretty cool, but let's talk about how we can take this to the next level. If you're like me then you like to bend the rules a little bit. One of my favorite sayings is by Picasso, and it's, learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist. In this class, we've talked about a lot of good staples and standards that you can use to make bows, ways to hold them together nicely, neatly, and we've also gotten to know a lot of different materials. Now that we've gotten to know all of the materials and all of the standard procedures that you can use to make a bow, we can mix it up a little and get creative. You can also twist a ribbon and just make a couple of loops or a couple of tails and add these throughout your project to make it a little bit more exciting. It's going to look like your ribbon is looping through your project and it's going to be a little bit more dynamic than a bow that just sits still in one place. If your project calls for a little bit of extra creativity, don't be afraid to practice making different types of loops, folding, and twisting your bows in other ways and in other configurations. Remember, the materials that you're using here can also be used for fiber art projects. I love using silk ribbon in my projects. I like twisting and turning and tacking those ribbons into place. Instead of using wire, I use a needle and a little bit of thread. Once you get to know which materials you like to use best, think of other ways that you can use these materials, how can you loop them, twist them, tuck them, fold them to create an even better, more creative project? If you're feeling up to it, definitely add whatever you create to your class project. I would love to see how you're thinking outside the ribbon box. Now that we've covered all of the ribbon fun, we only have one lesson left. You can go on ahead and jump into the next lesson where we'll wrap things up. I'll see you there. [MUSIC] 13. Beyond the Bow: [MUSIC] You did it. You've learned some great bow making techniques. Whether these techniques were breeze or a challenge, I'm going to recommend keep practicing. Try some other ribbon materials, try some other projects just to see which techniques and which materials you like best for making your bows. Plus it's a great way to explore and try out some other new materials that you can add to your creative toolbox. If you enjoyed this class, let the community know. You can leave a review by clicking the "Review" tab under this video. Let me know what your favorite part of the class was or which topics you'd like to learn about next. I truly value your feedback and your feedback can help me make even better content for you next time. Thank you so much for following along, I cannot wait to see what you create. [MUSIC]