This has definitely been the season of the big bows in my home. BIG bows! I made 3 versions that I used when decorating for Christmas, and 2 of those are pulling double shifts for Valentine's Day, so I'd say they were worth the effort! Today I'll share my tutorial with you of the process I used to make my giant bows.
I'll start by saying my bows were all inspired by a bow that John Mark made for his shop and posted about last year. He did a great video tutorial that you can watch on IG that I followed almost exactly for the paper green plaid bow that I made first. I didn't document my process of making that one since I just followed his instructions. I used the same idea but switched up a few minor things here and there for my porch bow and Christmas tree topper bow, but the basic process is the same!
For the green plaid bow, I just used wrapping paper that I had on hand. Definitely make sure you're using a thicker, heavy duty paper if you choose to make one with paper. I didn't have any issues with tearing and it was fairly easy to work with. You'll want a good clear packing tape to use with a paper version as well. I will note, this is how I hung that one over the mirror- fancy! I looped a paper clip through the zip tie in the center of the loops, then used wire and a cup hook in the wall to hang the double loop part of the bow where I wanted it to hang.
I think John Mark attached his tails a bit differently, but for me in this spot I found it easier to keep then separate. I used binder clips and wire to hold them together up under the center of the loops, and looped the wire around the top of the mirror to hold them in place. I also used some clear tape in a few spots to secure them to the loops so it wouldn't look gappy.
To create some movement in the tails I bent the wire where I wanted it to ripple, then just used clear push pins to hold it in place and attach it to the wall in a few spots.
I'll start by sharing my supplies-
Chicken Wire- 13" roll
Chicken Wire- 16" roll
Wrapping Paper (thick or heavy duty)
Fabric
Duct Tape for edging if desired
Felt Squares to make polka dots if desired
I've since seen a few other tutorials for large bows like these where the maker used different supplies and steps than I did, so there are definitely some different ways to do this but here's how I did it! The base of my bows is chicken wire, I bought a 13" roll and a 16" roll not sure which one I would want to use once I saw the size in my space. The green plaid bow was made with the 13" roll and I think that would be sufficient for any project. That roll was enough to make the green plaid bow and about 1/2 of the pink porch bow, but I ran out and needed more so I used the wider roll I had on hand too to finish the pink one up. Had I known how much I would end up needing I would have just ordered two of the same width rolls. It didn't really matter but just sharing exactly what I used.
For my porch and tree bows, I used a canvas/duck cloth type decorator fabric that I found for $2/yard on a discontinued rack at a local shop. I had my eye out for red but the price was right and pink worked just fine for me too, so I went with it. I didn't want to spend a lot because I was using this outside and knew it would be in all kinds of weather. I wasn't too concerned about it getting wet, I thought since it was hanging it would just dry naturally pretty quickly. I'm not sure it even ended up raining through the whole Christmas season, and it just got some snow on it last week but fared just fine. (Outdoor fabric would have been ideal but $2/yd this worked great!)
My fabric was the wide decorator fabric, so I started by cutting it in half to work on the loops. Your measurements will be different, I just measured the width of the spot on my porch where I planned to hang it and used that as a guide. You'll want to double the length that you cut for your loops since you'll be folding your pieces in half to make them. (If you want your bow to be about 5 feet wide, you'll need to cut your piece 10ish feet long.) I did make one of the pieces for the loops a bit longer than the other so they would have a layered look and be a little different in size.
I found it important to fold the cut ends of the wire towards the inside so there weren't any sharp wire pieces sticking out that would pierce the paper or fabric.
It doesn't really matter which sides you do first, but I started by wrapping the ends and hot gluing the fabric into place.
Then, I worked down the sides wrapping the fabric and gluing on the back side.
(P.S.- I'm wearing the darling PJ top as a blouse that I shared in last week's Five Friday Favorites. I posted it really late on Saturday if you missed it and want to check it out- it's a whopper!)
So now I have a finished piece to make one of the loops. Ideally, my fabric would have completely covered the wire but I had a small strip showing down the center of the back. You can see it from behind as my bow hangs, but it wasn't important enough to me to waste more fabric to cover it all the way up.
I wanted to add a little more interest to all that pink fabric, so I thought adding duct tape to the edges was the quickest and easiest way to do that on the outside bow. Just for reference I needed 2 rolls.
I measured and marked the center on the back of the loop strip-
then folded the ends in to those marks and hot glued in place.
I repeated that process with the second part of the loop, then used some zip ties to attach both pieces together and cinch the middle together a little bit. Then I cut a strip of fabric to wrap and glue around the center to cover the zip ties.
Loops are done!
Remember when I said I made some mistakes along the way? Here's one of them. I had seen a tutorial somewhere where they glued floral wire along the edge of the tails, so I thought I'd try that rather than using the chicken wire as a base again. This might have been ok had my bow been hung against a wall, but when I hung it outside there was just not enough support to hang the tails the way I wanted to. I'll show you how I fixed it on down below.
Once the tails were made and tape was added to the sides of them as well, I glued a few "pleats" into what would be the top side to scrunch them up a bit like tails would really look tied on a real bow.
Then, I hot glued those to the back of the bow. Another mistake... I should have left them separate until I hung the loop part of the bow. Keep reading.
Ok, this is once I realized the wire edge tails were too flimsy. I took the bow back down and added chicken wire to the backs of the tails so they would have more body.
Knowing what I know now, I would have made the tails just like I did the loops, wrapping the fabric all the way around the wire to cover it. But, I didn't want to waste more fabric so I just cut some leftover strips of fabric and glued them over my wire on the backs of the tail strips. Again, I was using up scraps so they weren't quite wide enough to cover the wire all the way but good enough to secure it in place. It would have looked prettier from the back had I wrapped them completely from the start like I mentioned, but this was good enough for me at this point. 😉
I hung this the same was as I did the other one, with wire and a cup hook. I only needed one cup hook in the middle and it's been totally fine and secure out there in the wind and weather for 2 months.
Regarding the tails again, I found it worked better to hot glue them onto the back of the loops where I wanted them once I had the loop section already hanging. Then I could tilt them the direction I needed them to go to frame the porch.
I don't have a photo but I used a couple of small nails in a few spots to secure the tails to the side posts. This was where the wire edges I originally tried didn't work and the tails were just to flimsy to shape. The chicken wire backing gave them the structure they needed.
Just a few quick notes on the bow I made for my tree topper-
It's basically the same process on a smaller scale. I had enough wire left from my second roll for this bow too, but I trimmed the wire lengthwise so my strips were narrower (folding the cut wires in again so they don't poke through the fabric). For reference, these were my measurements that I used, my tree is 9' tall.
Front loop: 9" wide x 55" long (then folded in half when finished)
Back loop: 11" wide x 65" long (then folded in half when finished)
Tails (just what I ended up with!):
2 were 6" wide x 32" long
2 were 8" wide x 26" long
Center finishing piece on loops: 5" wide x 20" long
I made the loops exactly like I made the big ones for the porch, here are a few notes on the tails. I laid them out and wrapped and glued the fabric around my wire strips (learned my lesson from the big bow- ha!).
I wanted my tails on this one to have a diagonal cut on the ends, so I just folded the wire up to the shape I wanted before wrapping the fabric around it.
I gathered the tops of the tails with a zip tie and put some wire through it as well because I wasn't sure yet how I was attaching them to the tree.
I was able to somewhat rest the loops on the top of the tree but wrapped a long piece of wire around the center to secure it to the branches in back too. Then I nestled the tails in one by one and ended up securing them with a bit of hot glue up inside the loop where I wanted them to go,
Again, I thought the solid pink was a bit too plain so last minute I decided it needed some pattern! I cut polka dots out of red felt and just climbed the ladder and hot glued them on in place. I used the tiniest drop of hot glue on each one so if I want to remove them and do something different at some point hopefully they will come off cleanly.
On a side note- I'll show you how I repurposed the tree bow for Valentine's day in a post later this week. And, I am storing the green plaid bow in case I want to use it in the future. I just separated the tails from the loops then rolled the tails up and stuck each tail inside one of the bigger loops, then slipped it all in a big trash bag and stored in my attic. I'm already thinking America's 250th might warrant a big patriotic bow somewhere too... we shall see if it gets a makeover for July!
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