Korker Hair Bows

I have been wanting to make my daughter hair bows for awhile now. I actually bought soccer and Halloween ribbon to make them in early Fall...but both soccer and Halloween came and went. So today is the day it happened...I am trying to make some to coordinate with my daughter's holiday dresses.

So to make a Korker hair bow, you need some basic supplies.....

Lots of grossgrain ribbon - I used 5 rolls of it. I think there is 9 yards on a spool. I got mine from Walmart.

Wood Dowels - This is crucial and your secret weapon. The more the better. I got two and cut them in half with my miter saw. If I had to do it all over again, I would buy way more than two. You could easily do them all at once if you had enough dowels instead of all afternoon like I did with my two dowels.

Wooden clothespins

Alligator clips or hair clips of your choice

Thread - preferbly coordinating so it blends in.

Glue gun

So you take your ribbon and use a clothespin to fasten it around the dowel at one end. Wrap the dowel with the length of the ribbon keeping it close together to get the tighter curl and then securing the end with another clothespin. By the way, don't use plastic clothespin...I assume you would know that, but just in case, they melt when hot.

After you wrapped all the dowels, you stick them in the oven at 250 degrees for 30 minutes. Check them so the ribbon doesn't burn. I had no problems, but ovens do vary.

I stuck mine on a cookie sheet to bake. After they are done, let them cool down. Once cool, unravel them and they stay curly.

Take a ruler and cut the curly ribbon into a determined size. I started with 2.5 inches. Make sure that once you determine the size that you cut them all the same unless you are looking for more of a crazy bow.

I used about 24 sections for the above bow. After cutting them all, you have to heat seal the ends so they won't fray.

You can use an Aim n' Flame or a match to heat seal the ribbon, just let the heat get to the ends and they start to melt. You don't want to singe them, but hey it happens. I actually lit a candle to do it and it was monotonous. There is a spray you can get to stop the fraying, but I don't have it, and didn't want to have to run out. But I think I will try it someday. This was the worst step in the whole project cause it was time consuming.

After heat sealing all the ends of the ribbon, I used a enlongated dish I have to stack them up putting thread down first so I could tug the ends to tie them together. So after the stacking, I just tied a knot in the thread and there you have your korker bow.

You take this bow and attach it to your alligator clip or other hair accesory with hot glue. I also lined my alligator clip with ribbon just to make it a little nicer, but I don't think you have to do this

My daughter is only 2, and after making the hairbow with the 2.5 inch pieces, I realized it was a little bigger than what I was looking to make. I think it will be good for a ponytail when she is older, but I was looking for something smaller so she could wear one on each side of her head.

So the next one I made, I cut the curly ribbon in 2 inch sections. It made a nice smaller bow, exactly what I wanted.

I'll post some pics of my daughter wearing them whenever I get a chance to track her down....