I think I’m a little crazed over St. Patrick’s day this year. It’s just that last year I realized the night before that none of my kids had anything green to wear for school the next day. I sent Mr. Everything to Walmart at midnight to find something green for them to wear. (Of course I would never go to Walmart at midnight!)
He’s a good sport.
Well, this year I’m planning ahead. We’ve got the green shirts…and now I’m accessorizing. Yep…shamrock hair clips!
(Front View)
I’m definitely not a bow making expert, but I’ve been dabbling the last few days.
(Side View)
A friend gave me some good pointers and shared some awesome bow-making blogs with me:
http://thedomesticdiva.wordpress.com/2007/11/26/embellishing-is-sew-creative/
http://fabricbowsandmore.blogspot.com/
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I completely used scraps of fabric and supplies I already had. (Love it when I can find a purpose for scraps!)
So I started by ironing heat n’ bond to various pieces of green fabrics.
Then I traced the shamrock shapes on to the heat n’ bond paper. I used the smallest shamrock shape pattern from my St. Patrick’s Day printables collection here: http://angelstreetmom.com/?p=4791
Tracing the shapes on the bonded paper is way easier than tracing straight on to the fabric. The heat n’ bond makes it so the fabric doesn’t fray, and also makes it a little stiffer. For this bow, I used 6 shamrock shapes.
I dabbed green glitter glue around the edges of all my shamrock pieces.
Then I took 4 of the shapes and folded them in half like this…
…and then in half again like this.
I glued each of the folded pieces onto an unfolded “base” shamrock with hot glue. I glued the piece so it lines up with the bottom piece, because I wanted it to stay looking like a shamrock in the end. (If you vary the pieces, it looks more flowery, which can be fun too.)
After the 4 folded shamrocks were glued down, I glued another unfolded shamrock to the top. The folded pieces make it poof out a little. And to make it poof out a little more, I glued pieces of tulle (tutu fabric) into the folds.
Then to finish it, I just glued a little pile of green sequins in the center.
For the back, I cut a circle out of the heat n’ bond treated fabric and cut slits in it like this, then glued it to the back. The idea was to be able to slip a clip or a headband through it and make it more versatile. The fabric was too thin though so I ended up just gluing the clip on. My friend uses a thicker stabilizing material called peltex. Her bow backs work MUCH better for clips and headbands. So I will be using peltex with future bows.
And there you have it!
Below is another variation of the bow using the shamrock shapes. However, on this one I staggered the shapes, which gives it a more flowery look. I also added transparent fabric in the folds and in the center.
