We often get asked how to make those beautiful puffy florists bows that you find on bouquets and hand tied bunches. Here's our photo guide on how to make a traditional hand tied bow.
We used 31mm wide polypropylene florists ribbon in our 'Baby Girl' design for these pics. This technique will work with any type of fabric or poly ribbon as long as it's reasonably stiff, you simply need to vary the number and length of the loops to match the width of the ribbon you're using and the desired width of your bow.
As with most things, the secret is to get stuck in and have a practice, you will soon be able to learn the technique and vary it to suit you.
You will need: a piece of scrap cardboard, scissors and ribbon. A household clothes peg is also really handy.
Start by cutting a cardboard template. This one is 6" (15cm), and makes a bow just over 5" (12.5cm) wide.
All finished!
Our tip is to grab yourself a roll of standard florists ribbon to start with, there's 100 yards / 91 metres on a roll and you can pick one up for just £2.99 in our shop. We stock around 30 colours, so you might be a bit spoilt for choice!
There's loads to play and practice with, and it won't cost you a fortune to scrap a bit of ribbon while you get the hang of it.
Once you've mastered the technique of hand tying, you will save yourself a small fortune on buying ready made bows. You can match your bows to the rest of your wrapping and even graduate to making two colour bows, bows with contrast trim, adding feathers or pearls, the possibilities are pretty endless.
We hope this little tutorial has been helpful, happy bow making. | 
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