For the price of one store bought hair bow, I can make 6 prettier ones by hand. This year, Jewel and I are creating hand-made hair bows as Christmas gifts for family and friends. The bows in these pictures were made using 3/8" grosgrain ribbon--the perfect size for a baby "whale-spout." For bigger girls, we simply added more ribbon loops for a bigger bow.

The supplies I used were: needle + thread, 3/8" grosgrain ribbon (various colors), a mini glue-gun, small barrettes and scissors. The total cost (ribbon, barrettes,$3 mini glue gun, $1 pack of mini glue sticks) was approx. $14. We have made 8 hair bows and have enough ribbon left for 10 more, depending on the size bow we make.

It was fun to dig through my sewing stash and find these daisy buttons, leftover from a dress I made for Jewel when she was about 2. I found the rhinestone stickers in my scrap booking stash and thought they added a nice sparkle to the bows. We heat sealed the edges to prevent fraying. I "ruined" a couple bows by holding the ribbon in the flame too long. I realized I only needed to hold the ribbon close to the flame, but not touching it--and only for a brief second.

We wrapped the top and sides of the barrette with ribbon for a more professional look. This is tricky and Jewel needed my help for this part. Yep, the hot glue burned my fingers! But it was worth it.

When we're done, we'll (hopefully!) have enough hair bows for 20 family and friends. That's about $2 per person! Jewel will wrap the bows in Christmas tissue paper (left over from last year) and present her gifts in decorated brown, paper bags. For now, we've nestled our little family of hair bows in a shoe-box and are happily creating more bows in the evenings after dinner.

It takes more effort to create a handmade gift, but the time I'm spending with my daughter is priceless. We hope our family and friends are happily surprised by these little gifts.

That is, unless they read this blog! :-D