And I’d say it has been 33% successful so far...
Got a crackerjack team of crafty folks (me, my mom, and Maggie), and we attempted to make three kinds of hair accessories (remember I said we were going to attempt it in this post to save a little money – since the girls lose about one clip a week – and to exercise our creative muscles).
1. The curly korker bow things. A dismal failure. We followed a bunch of online instructions (which all basically said wrap your grosgrain ribbon around a dowel, secure the ends, then bake at 200-275 for 20-40 mins).
Ours were kinda sorta curled after the baking, but the curls fell out shortly after and they just looked like sad little heaps of ribbon. We’ll try this again, will wrap MUCH tighter this time, and will bake longer (we started on the 200-degrees and 20-minute side of things). Any suggestions would be welcome!
2. Monogrammed silk flower clips. We’re still noodling these over, so the jury’s still out... We don’t have the self-covering fabric buttons that I want for the centers yet, but my mom is going in search of them and them we’ll have a friend with a fancy sewing machine do the initials on some fabric and attach the buttons to the middle of the flowers. The sight of our kitchen table in the midst of hair-clip brainstorming was pretty amusing though, so that’s the pic I’ll include for these ones. You can see a bunch of the flowers strewn here and there, and various rejected monogramming techniques:
3. Felt clips. Oh yeah, now these ones are easy and really fun! Got a bunch of felt at Michael’s, then had the girls pick colors this morning and I whipped up a few cute little clips over breakfast. Three colors, a little contrasting thread, and an alligator clip hot glued to the back:
Some of the felt was sparkly, like this pink one below, and sparkles are always a hit with our girlies:
These are the first three I’ve done, and I’ve learned a lot that I’ll apply to the next ones, so they’ll get better. The girls really like picking out their colors and shapes, and Ree was pretty dang proud that she helped me sew hers. I’m thinking these are simple, easy little clips that I can whip up while watching American Idol at night. (Side note: Is anyone else watching it? I really like the new judging panel.)
Sorry Etsy – it’s been fun, and we will alwaysalwaysalways love you, but I think we’ve purchased our last hair clip from you.
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Love the hair clips!! For the curly ones, it seems like I might have heard of using spray starch to hold the curl. Not sure if you still bake it or not.
ReplyDeleteRejeana
Cute! Love the felt ones!
ReplyDeleteAh, you never fail to impress and inspire...I'm telling you, M3, you have got it going on!!!
ReplyDeleteFunny, I've started making my girls' hairbows as well. Just got tired of paying the big bucks to other folks, and got REALLY tired of all shades of pink and purple...we're moving on to bigger and better and bolder hair accessories in our house!
ReplyDeleteHave fun...the felt clippies are darling!
As a mom of boys all of this is new to me but I think the felt ones are ADORABLE!!
ReplyDeleteDo you think if you use starch on the ribbon that would help hold the curl? (or even the glue that you make with cornstarch and water?)
soak the ribbon in water after it's twirled and then spray it with starch. keep it in the oven 20 mins. - just make sure it's fully dried (and not burned!) so cute!
ReplyDeleteSpray the curly ribbon with starch.. LOTS of starch. Let dry, THEN bake. Or soak in a water/glue mixture (80/20), let dry, then wrap and bake.
ReplyDeleteOh, they turned out adorable! I couldn't get a good picture in my head of what you were doing over the phone, but I love those! Bummer about the curly ones though. No advice here. I'm sure you'll get some from other peeps though and I can't wait to see them when they are done!
ReplyDeleteI have made several of the curly ribbon ones and they don't loose their curls, even if they accidently say...fall in the toilet? (ew, but true)
ReplyDeleteJust bake them longer. No starch needed! I can find my directions that I follow to make sure you are doing it right, but it was pretty simple.
(Not to discount the other suggestion, but why mess with starch if you don't need to!)
Becky
Watching idol. I am enjoying the new judges. I knew I would like Steve Tyler. I knew he would crack me up with his crass remarks.
ReplyDeleteI did not expect to like Jlo. I have never been a fan and thought she would be Paula Abdul (who annoyed us so much we would fast forward each time she opened her mouth)with curves. Much to my surprise I am enjoying her.
I have not been wowed by talent yet.....
Advice from a hair bow pro- NO starch. Eeew. Best left natural and not at all necessary. I use small clothes pins to hold the edges of the ribbon. Wrap tight on the dowel rods- you should not see any of the dowel. I bake mine at 275 for 15-20 minutes. Let them cool completely before taking the clothes pins off- that's key. When you cut the ribbon ends to sew the korkers, seal all cut edges buy running the edges quickly through a candle flame. Otherwise they will fray. They are a pain to make- I cringe when I get korker orders, but super cute and very popular so I keep doing them. I've probably made 500+ of them over the years.
ReplyDelete~Kelly
Did y'all happen to be in Dallas on New Years? We were at the American Girl store and saw a dad with a sweatshirt that simply said, "tuba" LOL I didn't see any kids with him. He looked a little lost :O) I wondered ???
ReplyDeleteOk So how do you cut the letters out so neat???
ReplyDeleteThanks! Melissa
I spin the ribbon on the rod and hold the ends with wooden clothes pins(they wont burn), bake at 250 for 25 mins, remove from oven and let them cool. Once they are cool, take them off the rod and spray them with spray starch(like hairspray) They will turn out for you.
ReplyDeletePersonally I havr made "korker" bows, but I just buy the ribbon already curled! I think I've gotten it off of ebay.
ReplyDeleteI've done the corkscrew technique with jute string, wrapped it TIGHTLY around a dowel (without any dowel showing) and just soaked it for about a minute or less in water (or just run it under water). Then, after baking, just left it on the dowel until COMPLETELY cool. They were perfect and are still curled about 18 years later!! :)
ReplyDeleteThe initials I've tried to cut out never look as neat as yours! Do you have a tip for us?
ReplyDeleteI used to make "twirly ribbon" hair clips for my girls. I found that metal knitting needles worked much better than dowels.
ReplyDeleteDarling hairbows & good luck with the curly ones. I should do something like that with my girls, since they're in the same class this year.
ReplyDeleteBig fans of American Idol, and I didn't think i would, but I'm also enjoying the new judges.
Great job on the hair clips. You have inspired me to try making them myself!
ReplyDeleteAnd, to my surprise, I really like the new American Idol judges, especially Steven Tyler. I thought that I would really miss Simon, but I actually prefer Steven over Simon!
Oh I'm so glad your posting how your doing on the bows! I want to start on mine this week, and was wondering how you were doing. I think I'll start with the felt one first. Then the curly ones. Does it matter what type of ribbon you use for those?
ReplyDeleteKrista D
Hi guys, thanks for the suggestions! (and the compliments, sweet sweet sweet!) I'll try again with the korker bows. Stay tuned.
ReplyDeleteSuz: we weren't in Dallas recently. We were in Houston, though. Your story cracked us up.
Melissa and Sara: I printed out the letters on a manila folder (so I had a thick pattern), cut the paper letters out, then held the patterns on the felt while I cut them out. They're not super neat if you look closely, but good enough. Anyhow I bought a small pair of supersharp scissors at Michael's, and I line the scissors up so the end of the scissors just reach to the end of where I want to go on each cut (so I'm not trying to stop in mid-snip). Probably doesn't make any sense verbally -- maybe I'll try to grab the video camera for the next one.
Krista: All of the instructions I saw for the curly bows said to use grosgrain ribbon only (the kind with ridges).
You could use a Sizzix die cutter. You could be punching that stuff out of lots of materials....vinyl, leather, fuzzy material. Much better than scissors. Do you have a friend with one?
ReplyDeleteAhhh, your creativity never ceases to amaze me. The felt ones are really cute!
ReplyDeleteThe spirals can also be done by crocheting. If you crochet, I can post basic directions . . .
ReplyDeleteNo bow making tips here but wanted to chime in on how cute they are! I made corkers once and they kept their curl but not sure why. Didn't use any spray starch but I seen to remember the ribbon being wrapped tightly so it touches and then letting it cool.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing more and wishing I was sitting at the table with the 3 of you...fun, fun, fun!!
For the curly ribbons I happen to have experience with this one . . . I made these for my high school best friend when she was Arizona's Junior Miss and went to the National pageant. Suave sponsored a photo contest for the best hair and I'm happy to say that she -- and her corkscrew ribbons -- won! She split the year's supply of Suave shampoo with me.
ReplyDeleteThe way I made them way back when, was that I wet the ribbon and wrapped it around metal knitting needles. I think that perhaps the moisture and the metal conducting heat did the trick.
Her ribbons were springy and stayed really well.
Oh, and those buttons are available at JoAnns or any traditional fabric store.
Cute!
ReplyDeleteWe lose so many that we don't go fancy, but rarely. It's plain old hairbands for Miss T right now.
You are waaay to clever, Mummy!
ReplyDeleteyou can also make really cute hair "pretties" as my granddaughters call them out of curling ribbon for packages. Using a hair clip to glue or tie them on. Just use a scissor to curl the package ribbon, and attach to the clip. cute cute cute!
ReplyDeleteI love making hairbows as well and have just began. I have yet to make a korker bow but you can buy the korker ribbon online (pre-corked). I really love the felt hairclips! Hope this helps...
ReplyDelete