More Hair Clips!

Clippies!

While dressing Zara the other day, I noticed a few holes in her hair clip collection. She was missing a brown one (her last brown one was lost on a shopping trip), a lavender one (different shopping trip, same ending), and a yellow one (guess where the last yellow one went). That kid tends to go through a lot, and I mean a lot, of hair clips.  Luckily for her, she has a mother who loves to make them.

Ingredients:

• Hair clip base
• Ribbons
• Hot glue gun & sticks
• Scissors
• Craft stick (optional)

Ingredients

I'm classifying these as Super Simple. They really are. I tend to do a base and then decorate it however I want. I use a grosgrain ribbon for the base. These are all done with white, but use whatever you like. I like the grosgrain because it tends to grip the hair better than a satin ribbon.

Start by figuring out how much ribbon you'll need for your base. I hate measuring, so I just put one end in the clip, run the ribbon around the whole clip and around the other side. I dovetail the ribbon to keep it from fraying. Put a bead of glue on one end of the ribbon, about the length of the clip arm. I don't know that it's actually called an arm, but it sounds good to me. Gluing just a bit at a time carefully place the ribbon all the way around the clip and on the inside. Be very careful to avoid the mechanism.

Be very careful with the hot glue.

Your base is done. It's time for the fun part.

A fully covered clip base.

I did a basic bow for the lavender clip. I started out with a length of ribbon and glued the ends together to make a loop.

Loopy!

Add a drop of glue to the inside of the overlapped portion and push down the top. This will generally make your bow loops even without having to measure.

Bow loopy.

Cut a short length of ribbon to make the center. Glue it on the back. That didn't really need to be said. You're brighter than that.

Starting the center of the bow.

Your bow is finished, so glue it on the base. Done!

Finished lavender hair clip.

The brown one is even easier. Tie a pretty knot in the center of a brown ribbon. Trim the edges on an angle to avoid fraying. Glue the whole thing on a base. Easy!

Clip Base + Knotted Ribbon = (see below)

A knotted ribbon hair clip

The yellow one is a bit different from the lavender one. I turned the ends of the ribbon in on itself and glued them down separately. 

How to make a twisty bow.

Both ends glued down. The hot glue strings are unnecessary.

Glue a short length of ribbon around the center to complete the bow and glue the whole thing on a base. Finished!

Pretty in yellow.

This last part is optional. I've found it easier to keep the clips in Zara's hair if I do this one little trick. I run a bead of glue on the inside of the clips, both sides, and then use a craft stick to rough it up and spread it out. It gives the clip a bit more traction on her slippery hair. It's not pretty, but it works and no one will ever see that part.