How To: Tie a Perfect Bow Every Time

Here in the love totes studio, we tie a LOT of bows when we are assembling our client's out of town gift bags. And obviously, they have to look gorgeous every time.

I'm a pretty crafty girl, but until I got into the business of tying bows (wink), I thought it was nearly impossible to tie a Martha-perfect bow without driving myself crazy. Well, here's the secret - it's not! I was totally over thinking it. It does take a little patience, but once you get the hang of it, it's easy peas. Promise!

Okay, here we go - How to make a perfect bow when assembling your DIY welcome bags, gifts or wedding favors:

Step One: Loop your ribbon of choice over the handles of the welcome bag so that both tails lay on the front of the bag.

Step Two: Cross the right tail over the left.

Step Three: Bring the original right tail behind the original left tail, then up through the hole that the two tails have made.

Step Four: Pull tight and (this is important!) take a little time to arrange and straighten your knot so it looks pretty... a nice foundation makes a better house and all that.

Step Five: Make a loop with each tail

Step Six: Cross the left loop over the right loop, then bring down through the hole that the two loops have made (sort of the opposite of what you did with the two tails in Step Three). Again, try to be sure that everything looks pretty - no twists or weirdnesses (yes, on this blog that's a word even though my spell checker says it isn't) that will cause problems later.

Step Seven: Pull tight. I know, it's not perfect yet. This is where the patience comes in.... Spend a little time arranging your bow and it's tails so they look how you want them to. You may need to pull the tails, then re-tighten the loops a couple times until you get there, but it's totally worth it.

For this project, I used a soft, wide satin ribbon, which makes a nice, full bow.  If you are using a stiffer ribbon, like a grosgrain, it's a little trickier, but I promise, if you take the time to do it right, it will be be perfect and it will look like a bow tying pro created those gorgeous welcome totes!

Have fun and good luck! Let me know if anyone out there needs more pointers!

xo