My Easy Rag Bow Tutorial has been a long time in the making. I have loved seeing these beautiful and creative shabby chic bows out in internet-land but was hard pressed to find a free tutorial, so I decided to make my own!
Do you ever struggle with competing decorating themes or styles? I do. All. The. Time. On one hand, I love bright pops of color, minimal knick-knacks, and clean lines. On the other hand, I also love rustic, shabby chic, neutral (trending darker) colors and all the rustic or shabby chic decorations that are out there. The bright colors usually win out in my decorating, which is basically just my craft room because I don’t “decorate” any other place in our house currently.
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This year, I decided to fight the “clean lines & bright colors” feeling and put together a fun shabby chic wreath, but first, I had to figure out how to make a rag bow. Onward to the Easy Rag Bow Tutorial!
Easy Rag Bow Tutorial
I had all the supplies on hand for this rag bow because, well, I hoard fabric and all the scraps from every project I’ve made since I was twelve. True story. My fabric filing cabinet is a wreck.
Most of these materials came from my time as a design team member for Canvas Corp Brands a few years ago, but some of them I have bought over the years because I LOVE their stuff for crafting (especially wedding crafting).
Materials:
- Burlap
- Printed Canvas
- Plain Canvas
- Lace Trim
- Colored Burlap (which you can buy in sheets, for this rag bow I simply cut up a red burlap bag into strips)
- Sequin Roll (Gold)
- Hot Glue Gun & Hot Glue
- Floral wire
Method to make the tails:
- It’s best to determine in which order you’d like to layer your materials. Lay them on top of each other in the order you want and then make your cuts.
- Cut each material into a variey of widths and lengths. I used the printed canvas as my base and made those the widest, about 3 inches wide and approximately 16 inches long.
- Lay out your base strips so that the tops overlap and hot glue together.
- Add your next longest pieces on top of each side and hot glue to the base layer.
- Repeat with each strip/layer on both tails until the base of your rag bow is complete. I had 6 layers for each tail: printed canvas, lace strip, burlap strip, lace strip, colored burlap, and then 3 stips of super skinny lace, canvas, and sequins tied together and knotted at the top. I hot glued this as the top and final layer.
Method for making the bow:
- I used 5 strips of material for the bow: plain canvas, printed canvas, lace trim, burlap strip, & colored burlap. Cut the bottom strip of the bow into a 20 inch stip. Fray the canvas and fold in each side so they meet in the center.
- Cut the next layer a bit shorter and place on top of the folded bow base and repeat the folding.
- Repeat for each strip of fabric. I left my strip of burlap flat so it would stick out each side.
- Scrunch together the folded middle portion of your layers and tie off with a short piece of floral wire. Twist until tightened so that it holds your bow together. Fluff out the bow, straighten as needed.
- Wrap an extra skinny piece of colored burlap around the center of the bow and tie off in the back
- Hot glue the bow to the tails
Need to see how this is done? I made a video!
This lovely shabby rag bow is now ready for it’s starring role in a shabby chic wreath! Or, these types of bows can be used as curtain tie-backs or gift packaging. The uses are only limited to one’s imagination!
How would YOU use a shabby chic rag bow? I hope you enjoyed my Easy Rag Bow Tutorial! I’d love to hear about it in the comments below, or join in the conversation over at the Desperately Seeking: Inspiration for Creative Living Facebook page!
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