My way of making a basic bow...

This is for a couple of my girlfriends who wanted me to show them how to make these bows. I looked at a ton of tutorials online and got a good idea of how to make them, they just used measurements for everything, needle and thread for a lot of them, and a bunch of other details that I don't have the time or patience to do. So, this is how I figured out how to make them my way. Because I eyeball the ribbon and measurements, they aren't perfect, but they work for me :) I am going to try to explain this the best I can. Jimmy took pictures of me making the bow because I thought it might help to see it and it would help me to explain... Here goes...

This is what I start with. One ribbon for the actual bow, one really skinny one to tie it with, and another one to cover the skinny one at the end. *Cut two of the main ribbon the same size if you are making two. Made the mistake of not doing that too many times and having to guess for the second bow.*

You need to loop the ribbon so that you end up with two loops and a tail on each side.

Once you have the loops, you fold them back and forth through the middle. It usually takes me three little folds.

I put a clothes pin to hold the folds in the middle of the ribbon so I can tie it really tight with the skinny ribbon.

Tie the skinny ribbon really tight so that it will stay good when you remove the clothes pin.

I double knot it in on the backside of the bow.

Take the clothes pin off and you should be able to see the basic shape of the bow.

 

The ribbon that you had at the beginning for covering up the skinny ribbon (sorry if I am confusing you!)... I usually tie that in a little knot and wrap it around the skinny ribbon in the middle.

I tie that one really tight too. Sometimes I don't tie it, I glue it with hot glue. Either way works.

That's what the back of the bow will look like before trimming everything.

I trim all of those pretty short so that they don't show through the front.

Last, I trim the little tails on the front of the actual bow.

And here it is!!

I really hope that was helpful and not just confusing. Please tell me if I confused you at any part and I will try to clarify.