Candy W. Ardlay - Uniform St. Paul's #5

I shouldn't, but I couldn't resist starting to make the hair bows. It's a new plan, a simple idea, but something I haven't done before.

The pink ribbon is cheap quality ribbon from the Chinese store nearby, but I could buy a 5m spool for around €5, and I liked the colour, even though the anime colour is more a bubblegum pink, and this is hot pink. These ribbons have a problem, they're very thin, with the satin finish only on one side, and tend to crease very easily. So my plan was to sandwich some stiff interfacing inside two layers of ribbon, with the satin side facing the outside. This could easily be solved with grosgrain ribbon, but they didn't have any in that width (7,5cm) and colour, nor any other shade of pink.

So, I made a tied bow with a bit of the ribbon, to decide on the proportions, and measured it. The bow part is 30cm long, and the bow flaps are 16cm long. So I cut double the length in the ribbon, twice for each, and two 7,5 x 30cm rectangles, and two 7,5 x 16cm rectangles of interfacing. I first folded the ribbon in half, to mark the centre, and did the same to the interfacing. This interfacing is a stiff woven cotton, with glue on one side. I usually don't like the heat bonding interfacing, but decided to use the glue feature for these ribbons. I matched the interfacing centre to the ribbon centre, and, with parchment paper on top of both, I pressed it with a medium heat iron. Then I folded both ribbon edges on top of the interfacing, the satin side facing out, and pressed the fold. This way, the narrow edges are folded, with a neat finish.

heat bonding the interfacing to the inside of the ribbon

folding the extra ribbon on top of the interfacing

the folded ribbons

how I joined both sides of the ribbon

the sewn ribbons (in artificial light)

the knot piece(s)

With a matching pink thread, I joined each side of the ribbon, making tiny prick stitches on the ribbon selvedge groove, starting from the fold, towards the centre. When I joined all four sides, I joined the ribbon edges, now in the middle of the rectangle, with a whip stitch. Then I cut a shorter ribbon rectangle, and an interfacing rectangle, the same length, but ⅓ the width. I heat bonded the interfacing to the side of the ribbon, and folded the ribbon into thirds, lengthwise.

loops and flaps

basted centre

folded centres and sewn bow

knotted bows

bows with crocodile clips (facing opposite sides)

To build the bows, I first join the longer ribbon in a loop, lengthwise, with a small whip stitch. The non interfaced side to the outside. Then I make symmetrical accordion folds to both the looped piece, with the seam in the middle, and to the flaps. With double threaded needle, I adjust the bow until it has the desired shape. Then I place the smaller knot piece and tack the knot part to the back of the bow, facing downwads, fold the top part upwards, over the centre point, and tack it to itself. Finally, I sew crocodile clips to the back of the bow, in opposite directions, and top the sewn part with a small rectangle of glued pink felt, for a nice finish and to reinforce the clip attachment to the bow.

neat finish with a felt circle

et voilá, two pretty pink hair bows

I've been watching a ton of clips of Pretty Guardian Sailormoon (the live-action) on Instagram, and I want to make Candy's bows a similar shape to theirs. They probably used obi interfacing, which I don't have access to, but I'll do it with the interfacing available to me. If I think it isn't stiff enough for the bigger bows, I'll add 2mm EVA foam inside, as interfacing.

+ the method is very simple, and it worked nicely. The ribbon doesn't even look like cheap Chinese store satin ribbon.

- It just takes longer to make, they took me around 14 hours to make, than a normal bow, and a few extra steps.

THE CUNNING PLAN

Just keep exercising, and finish the other costumes. But, when the fabric arrives, I believe I won't resist making both front bows, even though I still don't have the thin black satin ribbon for the burgundy bow's stripes.