The Green Wife

Today I sat down and photographed, step-by-step, the process of making a hair clip. While I am not really a fan of these huge, crazy, fluffy bows you see out there, I do like a little touch of color in Elliott’s hair from time to time. These little clips are just the right size for babies and toddlers and I’d been seeing them on etsy.com so I thought I’d try my hand at them. When I searched for directions, though….I found the internet was lacking in that department and thought I would make a tutorial contribution of my own! I hope you find it helpful!

You will need:

• Single-prong clips (ebay, beauty supply store…)

• 3/8″ ribbon (grosgrain or velvet stay in hair the best)

• scissors

• glue (I used hot glue, but if you use a craft glue the process is a beat neater and smoother)

• Fray check, clear fingernail polish, or a cigarette lighter to seal the ends of the ribbon

They look something like this…

This is what the clips look like. They’re about 1.75″ long.

Start with a clip and a 7″ length of ribbon.

Seal the ends of your grosgrain ribbon. I use a lighter: just hold the flame near (not touching!) the end for a few seconds.

Start on the inside, bottom of the clip near the joint and glue the ribbon down.

Then put glue on the underside of the bottom ‘jaw’ of the clip and fold your ribbon under, pressing and smoothing it onto the clip.

Turn the clip upside-down and put a spot of glue inside one finger tab (yes, I’m making up terms here…bear with me. lol) Press and hold until dry.

Turn the clip over once more and apply glue/ribbon to the other ‘finger tab’, allowing your ribbon to follow the ‘V’ shape of the hinged area.

With the clip top-side up, apply glue only to the outer side of the finger tab. If you get ahead of yourself and put it on the entire top, you’ll end up with a clip that’s glued shut and that’s just no good at all.

Now, hold back the remaining length of ribbon with your thumb and apply glue as you keep the clip open (again….no gluing the clip shut!).

While you’re still holding the clip open, press down the ribbon to cover the top outer part of the clip.

Flip the clip over and glue remaining ribbon.

Your clip should look like this….and not be glued shut.

If you want to add a little bow, you’ll need a piece of matching or coordinating ribbon about 3.5″-4″ long. Don’t forget to seal the ends.

With the wrong sides together, fold over one end about 3/4″-1″ and glue the tip down.

Add a dot of glue on top of where it’s already glued.

Bring the other end over to create a little bow that’s about an inch long.

Glue bow to top of clip.

While holding the clip open, add a drop of glue directly below the center of the bow. Attach the end of a piece of ribbon that you’ve cut to 1.25″ long.

Wrap ribbon around center of bow and secure underneath with another dot of glue.

Your clip should look something like this!

If you have any questions or input, please let me know! Thanks and have fun!