Friday 10 April 2009

How to make spikes for the STACKED BOUTIQUE BOW

Okay here is how I lay my layered boutique bow's spikes.

For a 5" bow (which I make the most) I will cut out 6" ribbon spikes. They can be 7/8", 1.5" or a mix of them two or a mix with 5/8" too. The following is the type I do most often.
I use all 7/8" except one 1.5" for the middle spike and it is topped with 7/8" printed ribbon. You will need on single spike for the middle, and for the rest you'll need them in pairs - see picture Now start with the middle spike. Again it can be just a simple piece of 1.5" ribbon but here I put a piece of printed 7/8" ribbon on top of a solid 1.5", right in the middle of it.
Fold them exactly in half (see picture)
Now thread your needle and make a knot at the end of the thread. Sew through the fold you just made exactly in the middle of it (see picture)

The back of your middle spike will look like this
Now continue with your next pair of spike, again fold the (pair of) spikes in half and sew through the middle of the fold (see picture)


Continue to do it with the other pairs of spikes until you stack all of them in a pile - note that when you sew keep the wrong side of the ribbon facing upwards. Here is how it looks in the end.

And here is the other side of it - with the middle spike on top.
Still use your needle sew again a very very very tiny stitch through all the ribbon layers. Now put them on a flat surface and rotate the spikes around that stitch until it has the look you want and perfectly symmetrical. For some reasons, I found the following look of the spikes arrangement works best for me. You may either spread it out more or do the opposite way, it depends on how many spikes do you want to use and what size they are.

Now you can sew a line across the middle of your spikes to secure the arrangement. If you can hold them in place tight enough, you can skip the sewing. Fold the whole layer in half lengthwise and hold it tightly

Then fold back the two sides of the center, use your thread or elastic thread to wrap around it very tightly and secure. now pull out the spikes and make the layer lay flat
Make the V-cut and heat seal it with a lighter.
I don't recommend to make too many creases at the center or sew through the middle of the center and gather the line as if your sewing is not very even it will harm the symmetry of the whole spike layer.
Hope you find it somewhat useful :-)
Happy Easter everyone!

8 comments:

  1. Great Lynn! I just made my first layered bow with spikes two days ago, I wish I'd seen this first LOL!

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  2. Thankyou so much for this! It is so helpful :-)

    Fran

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  3. Amazing information ~ as always! ;)

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  4. Oh, thank you. I am glad it's somehow useful :-)

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  5. Thank you so much for posting this. I have been searching everywhere for how to do this and your tutorial was so easy to follow and understand! I really appreciate it!

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  6. Great tut! I was wondering how to get my spikes to stay put and not shift.

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  7. I'm just learning to make bows for my three month old daughter and this was extremely helpful!! Thank you for sharing!!

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  8. This Grosgrain Ribbon boutique is really nice. Thanks for sharing.

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