Thursday, December 13

TAE-BO ANYONE? The Art of Making Bows

A few year ago, a friend called me up asking if I knew how to tae-bo. 'No,' I replied, 'I have never tae-bo-ed before'. She asked again, 'tae-bo? You've never tae-bo-ed before'? Again I said, 'No, no can't say as I have....have you'?
'No?', she says a little frustrated at this point. Sighing heavily she tries AGAIN....'really Ronda? You can't tae-bo-es? I've SEEN you tae-bo-eS, I have actually watched you tie bows on a couple of occasions'! Slowly I say, 'oh' ....and then with a bit more conviction I exclaim a little too loudly, 'OH!', as the clouds part and I begin to see the light, 'You mean, TIE BOWS, as in for a wreath or to put on a Christmas present. YES, OH YES, I KNOW HOW TO TIE BOWS....I thought you were talking about TAE-BO as in the exercise!'  So in short, what we have here is: one ditzy blonde + communication breakdown = a silly story...that's me. I AM a true blonde, with dark roots. I am the last one to GET anything!


And so with that in mind, here are step-by-step instructions on how to tie your very own bow!

Things you will need:

Scissors
Ribbon
#22 gauge wire

Pull out about 10 inches of ribbon, shiny side up, with your left hand. Holding the ribbon between your thumb and fore finger....
 ....use your right hand to twist the ribbon to the right....
 ...the piece of ribbon that you are now holding with your right hand should be dull side up.
With your right hand, pull the ribbon back over your left thumb forming a loop. The loop will be shiny side up.
 Catch the ribbon between your left thumb and fore finger, securely holding the loop and tail of ribbon.
With your right hand, twist the ribbon and form a second but larger loop in the opposite direction...shiny side up.
Bring the ribbon back to your left thumb and fore finger. Catch it and twist the ribbon again with your right hand.
Now you are going to pull the ribbon to the left and make a loop, bringing it back between your left thumb and fore finger. Twist again and make a loop to the right. Do not let go of center of bow.
 Each time you form a loop, left or right, you want it to be just a bit larger than the last.
Can you tell each loop I'm forming is getting larger and larger?
After forming each loop, you are going to twist the ribbon so that it is always shiny side up.
 By this point you probably have a nice cramp in your left hand. Repeat alternating directions until your bow is the size you want. I usually make 7 loops to the right and 7 to the left, with the one very small loop in the middle. However many loops you make, the LAST loop needs to be on the left side. When you bring the ribbon back to your thumb and fore finger, twist and instead of making another loop pull out a length of ribbon about 10 inches and cut. 
 Slip your wire into the middle of the first little loop you made. Make sure that one streamer of ribbon is to the left of your thumb and one to the right. Twist the wire tightly to hold your bow in place.
Continue to hold the bow in your left hand and with your right hand begin fanning out the loops.
Keep fanning them out.....
 ...until you are happy with their placement. Sorry for the blurry pictures, Mr.P played photographer as I was making my bow.
And here is the finished bow!
When I am making a bow.....start to finish, it never leaves my left hand until I am completely done. It stays in a constant place between my left thumb and fore finger. All I can tell you is to make good bows it takes practice, practice, practice.

Before you buy bows, this year, to decorate your Christmas gifts, find some ribbon and try your hand at making bows.....
.....you'll be glad ya did!

ENJOY!
~THE DOMESTIC CURATOR~
RONDA.....and Ms. B

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