Felt bows tutorial

 
 I've had a few friends ask about the felt bows Norah wears (the only bows that Norah wears) so I thought I'd put together a little "how to" for whom ever is interested.  I can't take much of the credit for these.  Sure I make most the ones she wears, but my friend Whitney was my Yoda in the process, she taught me everything I know about felt bow making and so I am passing on her knowledge, that I have absorbed, on to you:
1) Purchase your felt.  I got mine on ETSY, I searched "wool felt samples" and there are a few sellers who dye their own felt (its great quality) and you can pick a certain number of sheets in any colors you like.
2) Purchase your elastic, no matter the size of head of your baby or little girl, I prefer the 1/8 inch SOFT elastic, I love how its small and all the attention can go to the bow, thus making it look more like a hair clip than a huge headband.

Lets get started. So the easy way to do this is just to use a glue gun, but you can use a needle and thread for some parts if that makes you more comfortable.

3) First up, determine the size of bow you want (length and width) and cut a strip the desired width and double the desired length of your bow.

4) Next circle the strip around and glue the ends together with a THIN layer of glue (too much glue will make it too bulky and stiff).

no matter what I did with this photo it just
would not post horizontal, so hopefully looking at it
doesn't make you dizzy.

5) Then pinch the middle of the bow together to get the puckering look in the middle and put a small dot of glue inside to hold the pucker.

6) Cut the desired width for your center piece and make it long enough to go around the middle of the puckered part of the bow with some overlap for gluing in the back.

7) wrap the center piece around the center to create the bow look and put a thin strip of glue on that center strip in the back to connect the two ends.

8) You can actually stop here if you want, but I like to put the "ends" on to make it look like a tied ribbon. Cut to shorter rectangles that are the width of your bow and snip a triangle out of one end. And then snip the corners off the square end so that it fits the tapering of your bow.

9) You then glue those pieces on the the back of the bow near the end of the length of the bow... when doing it this way you reduce bulk in the middle of the bow so that it doesn't sit too high off her head.

10) And you are now down with your bow! next just cut your elastic the desired length for your childs head and all you have to do is overlap the ends slighty and glue them together.  Then just glue the bow on the top and you are done! (I like to put a dot in the middle and one on each end to tack the bow on good so it lies nicely).

 You can make one to match any outfit and any size of head...

    And here is my cute model...