And even though I only have the bows that she wears now out, there are still a lot of them and if I didn't have something to hang them on they would take over something. Since Charlotte was born I had been using a sweet bow holder that used to be my cousin Abby's. It worked great but with the bigger bows we were outgrowing the size of the holder and it was also mostly pink which doesn't totally complement Charlotte's new room. So I decided to try my hand at making one of the ballerina bow holders that I've seen. I searched high and low on Etsy but couldn't find one that was the colors that I wanted or looked exactly like I wanted. So, I pulled out my hot glue gun, sewing machine, and other craft tools and went to work!
(The step pictures aren't from the one for Charlotte, but for a friend in case the colors confuse you!)
Materials Needed:
Cardboard/an old gift box/paper - something to use for a pattern
A 12"x12"x1" square of foam
A piece of foamcore
Fabric to cover your bodice
One or two colors of 3/4" or 1" ribbon (I used grosgrain)
1 yard each of two colors of tulle (I used white and purple for Charlotte's)
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Sewing machine
Exacto knife
1. Trace out half of a pattern for a bodice on a piece of cardboard. I just freehanded it but had start and end points so that my length would be correct.
2. Trace your bodice pattern on your foamcore using your pattern and then cut it out.
3. Trace your bodice pattern on your foam using your piece of foamcore and cut it out. (How wide the bodice is is up to you. The one for Charlotte was almost the full 12" wide -- these that I'm making are a little narrower.)
4. Trace your bodice pattern on the wrong side of your fabric using your piece of foamcore. Cut this piece out just inside your trace markings so that the fabric is just barely smaller than your piece of foamcore. This will be the covering on the back side of your bodice so that all of your pieces are covered.
Steps 4, 5, and 6
5. Trace your bodice pattern on the wrong side of your fabric using your piece of foamcore -- trace the pattern around 1 1/2 inches larger than the piece of foamcore. Cut this piece out so that the fabric is able to lay on front of the foam and wrap around to the back of the piece of foamcore. This will be the front of your bodice.
6. Iron both pieces of fabric if you haven't done so already. This is when you can monogram the piece of fabric for the front of the bodice if desired.
7. Hot glue the piece of foam to the piece of foam core.
8. Center the fabric for the front of the bodice on the bodice and hot glue it to the back of the piece of foamcore.
You might need to notch your fabric depending on how cinched in the waist of the bodice is.
Wrap the corners like you're wrapping a present.
Finished corner/side.
9. Cut a piece of spare ribbon (or one that matches your holder -- it will be hidden so it doesn't matter what kind of ribbon it is) to just barely shorter than twice the width of the bodice. Lay the ribbon out and mark the middle.
10. Begin layering tulle on the ribbon. You can either cut strips in 3-4" widths that are the same length (that's what I did for these) or you can layer widths of tulle that are the width of your bodice. The fullness of the tulle and the look is up to you. Just layer it so that the top edge of the tulle is even or just above the top edge of the piece of ribbon. If you need to use straight pins to hold it in place that is fine, just place them so that you can easily remove them while sewing.
I used tulle from the bolt. I cut two panels of white and two panels of pink equal to the length of the entire ribbon that I had cut. I then cut those panels into fourths and rearranged them and the colors to achieve the look that I wanted.
11. Once you have the tulle laid out, cut strips of ribbon to your desired length and lay them on top of the tulle. I used two strips of single ribbon (for bows) and one strip of double ribbon (for headbands). Make sure you finish the edges of the ribbon with fray check so that they won't fray.
11a. To make double ribbon for headbands, cut your pieces to your desired length. Then use dots of hot glue around 2-3 inches apart to make holes to slide the headbands through.
12. Once the tulle and ribbon are in place, fold the other half of the ribbon on top of everything and pin everything so that it's not going to move when you move to the sewing machine.
13. Sew a plain stitch through the middle of your top strip of ribbon to hold the tulle and bow ribbons together. Make sure you enforce the stitching at both ends so that it won't unravel. If you have time and want to you can also stitch everything at the very top of the ribbon and the bottom of the ribbon just to make it more secure. You can also use hot glue to secure those edges if you prefer.
14. Next, lay the ribbon holding the tulle and ribbons on the back of the bodice right above the bottom edge. Use hot glue to glue the ribbon in place on the bodice.
15. Now cut a piece of ribbon to hold the bow holder up. Tie a bow in the middle and then place the ends on the back of the bodice so that the bow is your desired height from the top of the bodice. Hot glue the ribbon in to place. (I recommend hot gluing all of the ribbon that is on the bodice, not just the ends.)
16. You're almost done! The last step is to hot glue to piece of fabric that you cut to be just barely smaller than the bodice to the back of the bodice. This will cover up your foamcore and all of the rough edges of your project!
17. Hang your bow holder!
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