My brother has an absolute obsession with bow ties. In fact, he won't even wear a regular tie anymore. Even though our styles are anything but similar, since I'm all prep and he's punky prep, we do share a love for bow ties. Although I would never wear a bow tie, I adore them on him and started thinking how could I wear them, instead of just sporting them as a design on a sweater or in my hair.My mom spotted this MAC ad and we we had our answer: a bow bracelet.
We saw a cute DIY here and fancy-schmancy ones at Kiel James Patrick ($58)... but we're pretty proud of how cute ours turned out! And they cost loads less and are practically fool-proof to make. The hardest part? Deciding what ribbon to use!
Step 1: Gather supplies. You will need pliers, ribbons of various lengths (as you can see, mine are cut in approximate lengths!), chain, crimps, scissors, a glue gun (or fabric glue) and a ruler. You will also need a fastener. (Sorry, I forgot to take a photo of it!) I ordered my crimps from Etsy and got a "grab bag" of various sizes since I wanted to make a few bracelets. If you know exactly what size ribbon you will be using, you could order just that size crimp since they are very affordable.
Step 2: Make your bow. It's easy... just make a circle with the 7" ribbon and glue the ends (pic. 1). Then pinch and glue the middle (pic. 2). Finally, use the small 2" piece to wrap around the middle and glue it in place (pic. 3). Voilà, your bow!
For our pink and green bow, we made a double bow. (Not to be confused with a double rainbow, haha.) I used the 6" and 7" ribbons to make circles (as in pic. 1) and then glued each of them in the middle (as in pic. 2). Then I placed them on top of each other and wrapped the 2" piece around the middle (as in pic. 3). It's exactly the same as below, but with an extra 6" bow on top!
Step 3: After you have your bows, add the crimps to the 5" ribbon by gently applying pressure with the pliers. Then attach a few links of chain to each crimp, depending on how tight you want your bracelet to be. Surprisingly, the bracelet is balanced and won't turn much even if loose. You might even decide, based on the size of your wrist, that you want your 5" ribbon to be cut down to 4-1/2". My wrist is medium, but my mom's wrist is tiny, so we varied ours. With a 5" ribbon, we only needed 1 or 2 links on each side of the bracelet. It will also depend on your fastener, so wrap it around your wrist to size it before you begin! Attach the links and the fastener and you are done. The entire project should take less than 30 minutes!
Single Bow:
Double Bow:
Tag us on Instagram (@popcosmo) and let us see what ribbons you choose and a photo of you wearing your DIY bow bracelet!
Linked up at: The NY Melrose Family, Ginger Snap Crafts, DIY by Design