The Planner and The Procrastinator: Lace Hair Bow

I am in LOVE with lace right now! Aren't you?! I've seen lace headbands, lace appliques, lace necklaces and lace flowers. But never have I seen a lace bow?! Huh? I started to wonder why not? It isn't really that difficult to sew lace, is it? NO! I think it could work! I went over plans in my head as I do and finally came up with an action plan!

Materials:

Scraps of lace
random button
alligator clip
scrap of felt
hot glue gun
needle and thread

First cut two rectangles of your lace. Just ignore those white squares for the next couple pictures. I originally planned on putting them behind the lace to give it more dimension but later decided it didn't need it. If you like the look of it go for it! I just thought it was a bit bulky. I cut mine 5" x 6 3/4". I really just eyeballed this my lace was only 6 3/4" wide so that made my decision for me and I thought 5 was a good height.

Just picture this in lace!

Sew them together leaving about an inch opening so you can turn it inside out.

After you have it sewed together pink (or just trim them if you don't have pinking shears) the edges and clip the corners being sure not to snip into the seams.

Turn them right side out and use your scissors to make nice pointy corners. Don't push too hard or you'll make your corner kind of wonky. And press flat.

Fold it in half and press a crease.

Now use the crease as a guide and stitch your longest stitch length. Pull your top (or bottom whatever you prefer) string and gather the middle up tight. Giving you a bow shape. Then I switched my machine back to a shorter stitch length (a bit shorter than a normal stitch length). My normal length is 2.5 and I backed it up to 2.0. Then stitch the gathered middle in place so that it doesn't randomly come undone.

Now for the clip! We need to cover it some how so that the metal doesn't show through the front of the sheer lace. So cut a length of felt slightly larger than the width and a bit more than double of the length. Then cut a slit in it where the clip hinges.

Then put the clip in so that it would sit flat on the table. Angled side of the hinge up. You'll see why in a minute just trust me!

Fold the felt back and add a dab of hot glue to where you would grasp the clip. Then on the the insides of the clip as well. Making sure not to get it on the actual spring.

Finally on the other side of where you would grasp the clip. Fold the felt into the crease of the clip and over the top of it.

Covering one prong of the clip completely.

Find the center of the clip. Mine came out to about 2 inches so I marked it at 1 inch.

Then put hot glue on the felt side and glue it onto the back of the bow. This is where the angled end comes in. Make sure the angled end is up against the bow. It will be fine if it pops the bow forward a bit. Not cute when it pops off of your head.

Finally glue your button onto the front middle of your bow.

My grandmother gave me this HUGE tin of random vintage buttons that she has been saving forever! Unfortunately she is not in any shape to be sewing and I was the only one even remotely interested in it! Seriously this huge tin was like a pot of gold! I don't think I'll ever need to buy buttons again!

While I made this bow for myself I took a picture of it on my beautiful little model! And I think it works! She really liked it as well....looks like I'll be making a few more! Not a big deal because I had everything on hand and it literally took half an hour!

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