Korker Bows

I bought a bunch of ribbon and wanted to make some cute bows for my girls, so I looked up a few different tutorials, and combined methods to make mine. I figured out, as with most crafts, there's really no one way to do it. You can use the curling technique and make tons of different styles of bows. Of course then you add in all the varieties of ribbon, and your possibilities are endless.

Here's what you need to make a basic korker bow.

• ribbon (I decided that 1/2 wide or less works best)

• string or elastic
• hair clips, or elastic bands (depending on what you want to attach the bow to)
• Strong glue (I think hot glue would work fine, but I didn't have any, so I just used a strong "all-purpose" craft glue- although this takes longer to dry... kindof a pain)
• wooden dowels, cut into lenghts that will fit into your oven (whatever width you want your ribbon curls to have)
• wooden clothes pins
  
• match/candle, clear nail polish, or another product to keep your ribbon from fraying
  

Pin one end of your ribbon to the end of a dowel. Wrap the ribbon around the entire length of the dowel. I heard that if you were to make lots of these, it may be worth attaching the dowel to a drill and wrapping it quickly. I just did it by hand. Then cut the end and secure it with another clothes pin.

Once you have done several dowels, place them on tin foil in the oven at 275 degrees for 25 minutes. You can check that they're done by unclipping one end and unwinding the ribbon. It should hold its curl.


Cut the ribbon into 2 1/2 inch segments. Burn the ends of the ribbon, or apply your "fraying prevention" to the ends. Lay a bunch on a 6-8 in. piece of string (most places say to use between 25-30 pieces per bow, but you can use less or more depending on the look you're going for). Loop the string around the ribbons and tie it in a TIGHT knot.

Now you can glue it to a bow, a clip, or a headband. Once attached, you may wish to wrap a piece of ribbon around the center to secure it to your headband/clip/elastic/bow, etc. I also add some glue to the center of the ribbons to keep the pieces from getting pulled out. That's it. Super fun. Super cute. Super easy!!!

***Note: I attached all of my bows to aligator clips, that way I could either clip them directly into my daughter's hair, or I could clip them onto an infant headband. But look how cute they would be on the side of a regular headband!