great *beau* valentine’s

i mentioned yesterday that sela wanted to give the girls and boys separate valentine’s this year…

for the boys, i wanted to come up with something that was very charming {not something to throw-out in the trash as soon as they were home!}, and original, but still masculine.  and, no treats – candy, etc. – are allowed.

with all these requirements, i finally thought about bow-ties & beaus!

i pulled out the extra fabric from these drawstring bags.  i did not want to get out my sewing machine and spend too much time per bow-tie. instead, i used hot-glue and created a very simple pattern that took only a few minutes start to finish per bow-tie. we only needed to make 9 bow-ties for her class. this was all done in less than an hour!

{even if you don’t make these bow-ties as a valentine, you may want to try to make one for the special little man in your life! because it’s SO easy & i am very impressed with how sturdy they turned out!}

imagine the boys receiving these & instantly clipping the bow-ties on for the class party! insta-charm! how cute would that be?!?

step-by-step instructions for the bow-ties:

1) you will need 1/2 yard fabric, scissors, pen, clips, and hot glue gun

for 9 bow-ties, my fabric was 54″ wide, so i used less than a 1/2 yard.

2) cut your pieces 10″w x 3″h

3) using the pen measure 5″ to the middle, and 1.5″ inches down to put a dot right in the middle, this will help guide your with your folds later on.

4) fold the ends of your fabric in, similar to wrapping a gift & hot glue* down.
*each time i say “hot glue,” use enough glue to hold the fabric in place, but don’t use too much or when it’s time to fold the bow-tie later, you won’t be able to fold it into a nice shape.

5) fold each side in, as seen in the picture & hot glue. not shown: fold the pointy ends in to the middle, the pointy tips of the folds do not need to be touching, just within 1/2″ of each other. use the dot as a guide & hot glue into place. this completes the main part of the bow-tie! ta-da!

6) for the next step, you are going to set the bow-tie-aside, and cut a new piece of fabric 1″w x 10″h, consider the placement of how you cut this piece on your fabric because it will be the center of the bow. i made sure the stripes lined up with the rest of the bow-tie.

7) fold each side in almost to the middle & hot glue.

8) place the center strip around the center of the bow, flip the bow over & hot glue one end to the center (just above the dot).

9) wrap the strip around the bow & pull tightly until you like the appearance of how it “gathers” from the front. trim the strip where it fits nicely & hot glue the second side of to the middle of the back. keep the left-over strip for other bows. i was able to use one center strip for at least 2-3 bow-ties.

10) use a dot of hot glue on your clip

11) place the clip on the back-center of the bow-tie. finished! easy, right?

once again, i designed a very simple label, we used brown kraft paper card stock measured in 6″ x 6″ squares to match the valentine’s she made for the girls.  sela helped me cut the labels + she signed her name & glued them on. at her age, just signing her name 18 times is a big task! + she loves the glue!  we cut a small slit in the brown kraft paper to clip the bow-tie on.

the labels are available as a free download, here!
if you make some, please share & let me know!

cheers to great beaus!
xoxo.