DIY Leather Hair Bows Tutorial

I’m seeing hair bows all over the place and I’ve been pretty surprised by the popularity. The last time I rocked the hair bow was in the 6th grade when my teacher had taken to calling me ‘Baby’ as a nickname. I was officially over anything that could be considered immature and I placed hair bows firmly in that category.

But looking back through time, lots and lots of adult women have worn hair bows. And with the resurgence, I thought I’d rock some made of leather which seems terribly chic to me. So I did a quick search and real leather hair bows are freaking expensive! Like $50 to $80 expensive. Um, heck no. So instead I rocked two $4 pieces of leather to knock out some leather hair bows perfectly suited to a more mature wearer.

Now my hair is really short right now, but I envision that the smaller ones would be cute to pull back hair to the side of the larger one over a ponytail or under a big bun. I’m sure you can find a ton of ways to wear these and be sure to give any suggestions in the comments!

For this project you will need:

• Soft and flexible leather or faux leather pieces (I used trim sized pieces)
• Scissors
• Hot glue
• Hair clips

Cut a strip of leather into a strip the width you would like your bow to be and as long as needed to create the size of bow you’re going after. You can play with your larger piece to estimate where you’ll need to cut.

Trim down the sides in sloping angles as seen above.

Using hot glue, pin down the edges of the leather to the wrong side. You don’t need tons, just a little dab’ll do you.

After the glue has cooled, pinch the leather together to begin forming your bow.

Add a dab of hot glue to the backside and glue on a thin strip, wrapping around and gluing again to the back to hold tight. Trim the excess.

This is a good way to use your scrap leather, so wait until the end to cut your strips as you may have pieces that require only a little bit of modification to work!

Glue your bow onto the hair clip of your choice. My smaller bows are on alligator clips and the larger on traditional, 100 mm clips.

My bigger, black bow used up pretty much my entire piece of trim leather. The smaller ones I was able to easily get two out of. If you’re worried about wasting leather, practice using scrap fabric to get your dimensions down just right!

Now I know that side by side they look pretty similar but the black bow is much, much larger. I envision this one looking lovely with a bun or top knot!

All together I spent about $8 on leather and was able to make 3 bows total. Keep your eyes peeled for value-priced grab bags in the leather crafting section to make even more for even less!

Allison

A crafter since her earliest years, Allison spends a little time every day making something. She crafts, sews, paints, glues things onto other things, and is a firm believer that a life spent creating is a life worth living. Visit Allison’s blog, Dream {a Little} BIGGER.