The Perfect Bow

Hiya, my twine friends!

This is a post I've wanted to do for a while now, since I learnt how to do a perfect bow.

 I used to have major bow-envy. My bows always looked kinda squished and lopsided, with one tail up the top and the other down the bottom. Now, thanks to Kylie at Scrap To The Max, I know how to get my bow nice and neat, with the tails both at the bottom! Hooray!

Alrighty, we're going to start with this loop. It kinda looks like the Breast Cancer Foundation ribbon. 

Notice that what will become a 'tail' is on top of the loop. Now, pick up your loop (you may already be holding your loop!)...

... and hold your loop tightly between your fingers...

like so. Now, bring the OTHER tail around the loop, taking it around your hand.

Just like that. And bring that twine around the base of your loop, and pull it tight.

Tighter!

Okay, the twine is nice and tight around the base. Next, we want to make another loop, with the twine you've just brought around. This loop doesn't cross over itself like the original loop. This loop looks like this:

And then like this:

So you've got Mickey Mouse ears. Now take this new loop, and tuck the top of it through the circle of twine that was created when you wound the twine around the base of the first loop. Make sense? No? Here's a photo:

Now, here's where you might start to get worried. I know I was! "How is this going to work? It's just a big, twiney mess!" Take the top of that loop you're pushing through, and pull it. You might pull both loops at once. And then you get this:

Looks a bit like a bow now, doesn't it? Yay! So now we pull both sides tight so the middle turns into a knot. Like this:

 It still looks a bit messy, but don't worry. Here's where we neaten it up. Put your finger on the middle knot -

- and pull each tail until you're happy with the size and shape of the bow. Like this:

Now you can trim your tails, and look what you have...

A perfect bow!

The twine I used for this tutorial is Whimsy Farm Twine  "EllaBlue" . I love EllaBlue for elephants!

These elephant cupcake toppers and gift tags are from Whimsy Farm Parties.

Wow. This was a long post; for something so simple it takes quite a bit of explaining, especially in pictures. I hope it has helped you! 

'Til next time,

Angie. xx