Build-A-Bow

Briana frequently tells me that she knows a lot about fashion.  Particularly when she doesn’t like my outfit or when I’m wearing my “Ugglies” as she likes to call my Ugg boots.  I have to admit that she does have pretty good fashion sense and most days she picks out cute outfits and accessories for herself and Abby.  The outfits she picks for me are usually really cute too, but most days unwearable because she doesn’t understand sizes yet and I’m too proud to say, “Mommy can’t wear your beautiful outfit because she hasn’t been able to fit into those pants since college.”

This week she expanded her usual “I know a lot about fashion” to include “I have a passion for fashion”.  I don’t know if anyone but me remembers an ad for Bratz dolls from about 5 or so years ago that went “Girls with a passion for the fashion mall…Little Bratz”, but that jingle runs through my mind every time I hear her say it. Somehow this week she also got it into her head that she wants to make her own clothes, because, of course, her passion is fashion.  Since I am barely able to sew on a button, I told her that we should start with something smaller like a hair bow.  She jumped on the idea and has spent the week happily asking if it was “Friday Bow Day” yet, while I spent the week scouring craft stores and u-tube bow making videos to help her dream come true.

Now any “fun” mom out there would just let her kid make hair bows, but that’s not the kind of mom I am.  So before we make hair bows, we have to learn a little more about fashion.  Luckily, I found an adorable and very informative book by American Girl (the doll company) called ‘A Smart Girl’s Guide to Style: How to Have Fun With Fashion, Shop Smart, and Let Your Personal Style Shine Through’.  I couldn’t say enough great things about this little book.  It goes through types of clothes (shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, shoes, coats, hats, jewelry, etc.) in just the right amount of detail for a small kid.  For example, in the ‘shirts and sweaters’ section it shows pictures of all of the different silhouettes of shirts and sweaters – tank, halter, camisole, t-shirt, polo, henley, button-down, turtleneck, cardigan, pullover, cowl-neck, wrap, shrug, capelet, hoodie, and sweatshirt.  It then follows up with collar types (funnel neck, Peter Pan, band, and button-down) and sleeve type (cap, puff, raglan, bell, and batwing) and necklines (scoop, crew, turtle, mock, boat or bateau, ballet, square, keyhole, v-neck, and crossover).  I learned something for sure.  It’s a little bit grown up for Briana, but she loves it anyway and soaks up the information.  It also talks about different types of patterns and fabrics.  Finally it has cute sections on ‘what real kids say’ about their fashion emergencies and friends and sections basically about how to compromise with your parents with cute advice I’d actually agree with.  For example, it says not to buy something you don’t think your parents will like.  Instead bring your parent and show them the item of clothing and then tell them why you like it.  Maybe they’ll say it’s ok and buy it for you, but maybe they’ll say it’s too short.  Then you guys can go find something with that same style that’s longer.  If you buy it anyway, you’ll never be allowed to wear it so you will have wasted your money and maybe even lost your parents trust.  I paraphrased that because I don’t want to violate any copyright laws…that or I’m too lazy to go upstairs and get the book right now.  Whichever you think. 

Briana, Abby, and I partake in an activity that Bree invented when she was 2 – “sipping on smoothies, talking ‘bout fashion”.  Just like it sounds, we make smoothies and drink them and usually we look at the pictures in InStyle magazine and talk about what we like and don’t like and why we feel that way.  Today we go through Bree’s new book.  She decides that we have to go find a jumper dress right now because she’s worried that she doesn’t have one.  Of course she has quite a few, but as she says, she “never did think those dresses were just for shirts to go under it”.   So she’s learning something.  Sadly, we also learned that she does not have a bubble skirt and really wants one - the downside of giving your kids too much knowledge.  All week we read this book and by “Friday Bow Day” I’m happy to be finishing up our fashion week.  Shopping is one thing, but studying what kind of fabric is on every coat in the house is a little bit tedious to me.  Hey, her passions don’t have to be mine, but I feel that it is my job to help her explore what she likes even if it’s not my thing.    

Friday Bow Day is here!

I set up Thursday night after the kids have gone to bed to make sure that we will have everything we need.  Here’s what you need:

      x      Ribbon of different colors and widths
x      Clips – I got a variety of sizes and styles
x      Scissors
x      Glue gun

      x      Flame of some sort to seal the ribbon (clear nail polish works too, but it stinks and is messier)

      x      Needle and thread (which we didn’t end up using but I wanted in case)
x      Different types of bows that you already own for inspiration

Bree had a great time picking out the bows to use for inspiration, since I had to get those before the kids went to bed.

As it turns out, amateur bow making is fun, creative, and pretty simple – as long as you aren’t really going for actual perfection.

The night before, I also make a practice bow, just to make sure that I know what I’m doing.

Friday Bow Day turned out to be more anticipated than Christmas morning at our house.  Briana was up at 6:30am, which she never does.  She ran into our room, waking us up, screaming “It’s time to make bows now.  Everybody get up.  It’s time to make bows.”  Sigh.  Ok, I’m up, let’s go.

Briana picks out a green ribbon with strawberries on it.  Surprising to me since all week she’s been talking about wanting orange bows.  Orange is her favorite color.  She tells me that she wants this green ribbon to be “really, really big and really, really ruffly and tied in the middle with lots and lots of shiny gold”.  I tell her to slow down.  The first step we need to do is to pick out an inspiration bow that we’re going to try to make our bow’s shape like.  Basically my plan is to reverse engineer whatever bow she picks.  She picks one out and I examine it.  I think I can make this. 

The next step is to decide which clip we want to put it on.  She already knows which one she wants.  Then we need to cut the ribbon.  “I want it really, really, Really big.”  I let her tell me where to cut.  Ok, but we need it to fit on the clip.  I fold the giant amount she picked on the clip and show her how the bow would just flop over if we did that.  She cracks up.  “That bow is too floppy.”  So we pick a more appropriate size.  I hold it taut and let her cut. 

Next we need to burn the ends so they don’t fray.  She wants to know what fray means so I show her how the end looks now, then I burn the end and show her how it’s harder now so the ribbon won’t unravel.  She thinks that’s cool.  When you burn the ends, only dab the flame on the end of the ribbon or the end will start to roll up and turn black.  I burn the other end of the ribbon.

Now I show Briana how the fold the bow in half and press so it makes a line.  She does it herself.  It’s a little off center, but we’re going for fun and education, not perfection, so we use her line.  We fold the ends of the ribbon onto the like to make our bow’s loops.  We repeat that process 2 more times with increasingly smaller sized ribbons and then we stack them.  I think we need a few more loops but Briana insists that “Three loops on each side is perfect, Mom.  Just like this and now the gold.”  Fine by me. 

I get out the glue gun and put a small dab of glue on each of the fold lines and Briana folds the ends in to meet in the glue.  We do that for each of the 3 ribbons.  Then we stack them and flip them over to decide which way they look prettiest.  Then I put the first one down on the table, with a dab of glue in the center, and press the second one on it.  Then I add more glue to the top of the second and put the third on it.  It doesn’t matter for this kind of bow if your seams are showing because they’re going to get covered up. 

Finally we cut and seal the edges of the gold ribbon.  We take the inside arc shaped part of the clip out of the clip.   Here’s a pic so you know what I mean by that.

We dab some glue on the top of the clip, and affix the ribbon.  Then we wrap the gold ribbon around the clip and the ribbons and glue the ends down underneath.  The final touch is to replace the arc shaped part of the clip and wait only one minute to make sure the glue is dry before you put it in your hair.  Bree can barely wait that one minute.  She is so proud of her first creation and is somewhat furious that Abby wakes up and we have to pause our fun.

 

Boiled down the steps are:

1.     Pick an inspiration (or dream one up)

2.     Pick out a clip (as this will dictate the size)

3.     Cut the ribbon the size you want

4.     Burn the edges so it doesn’t fray

5.     Fold it to make a mock-up of what you want

6.     Glue it

7.     Attach it to the clip (taking out the clip inside if it’s that kind of clip)

8.     Admire

Once I get Abby situated with some breakfast, I start to make Abby a bow.  I let her pick out the ribbon and the clip.  Abby’s favorite colors are pink and yellow, so it’s no surprise to me that she picks out a brown, pink, and yellow/cream dotted ribbon.  Making a ribbon like this is even more simple than Briana’s one, though it took me a minute to figure out how to make the bow since tying a bow didn’t look right.  Here’s how to do it- cut the ribbon to size, burn the ends, fold the middle and press into a line, and glue the ends into that centerline just like before.  Then pinch the middle and I put a little glue into the center when I pinched it so it would stay.  Bree picked out the ribbed white ribbon for the center wrap, and I wrapped the center to cover the seam and glued it to the back of the bow.  Then one big dab of glue applied to the bottom will stick the bow to the wide part of the clip and you’re done.

I really should have taken the time to comb the kids’ hair before I put our new bows in and took pictures.  In my defense, it was really early in the morning and we were very excited and busy.

We proceeded to try to make a replica of most of our inspiration bows in many different fabrics.  As we make new ones, Bree puts it immediately in her hair before we start working on the next one.  Lucky she has all of that hair!

 Amusingly, when I ask her if she wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up she still says “No.  I’m going to be a chemical engineer like you Mommy.  So is Abby.  We’re going to all be chemical engineers and make lipsticks together when Abby and me grow up.”  But who knows, one day people may be clamoring for Briana’s next designs – she has a passion for fashion after all.

<3 Pedigreed Housewife