You’ve seen star gift bows available by boxfulls around Christmas time. You may have seen them down the party aisle at your local everything store. And maybe you’ve even seen some gorgeous cloth ones–for a pretty penny. Well, what if you don’t want to pay the hefty price for cloth star bows, or you would like to use specific ribbon for them, or you just feel like making your own bows (by the way, you can use non-cloth ribbon too)? Then this tutorial is for you.

Create the Star Bow Template

• the star bow template guide {free printable for this below}
• a sheet of computer paper
• scissors
• a sheet of cardboard {shoebox kind of cardboard I’ve found to work best}
• a pen or Sharpie marker

Step 1: Print a Star Bow Template Guide

1. Save the template guide to your computer. You can access this FREE guide by clicking on the download button below.
2. Print off the guide onto a sheet of plain computer paper.
3. Cut out the desired flower-shaped template including the hole in the center.

Download Template Guide

Step 2: Create a Star Bow Template

1. Place the star bow template guide on the cardboard. Trace around it {including the hole in the center} with a pen or Sharpie marker.
2. Cut the cardboard template out {including the center hole}. Discard the center hole.
3. Finally, number each “petal” on the template as indicated on the template guide. The template is now finished.

Create the Star Bow

• ribbon
• matching thread
• a needle
• tape
• scissors
• star bow template {details for making this are above}

A Note About the Ribbon

How much ribbon you’ll need for each bow depends upon which size bow you’re making, how poofy you want the bow to be, what kind of material the ribbon is made of, and how thick the ribbon is. Here’s a rough estimate {I’d recommend getting 1/2 to 1 whole yard extra just in case}:

• Small Bow {3 inches} — approximately 3-1/2 yards
• Medium Bow {4 inches} — approximately 4-1/2 yards
• Large Bow {5 inches} — approximately 5-1/2 yards

If you found a design or style of ribbon that you absolutely love, but the amount that comes on the spool is not enough to make your bow, then buy the extra spools necessary. While in the middle of making the bow, pause to connect the two spools of ribbon. You can connect them by sewing, stapling, taping, or hot gluing them together. Just make sure to tuck this “joint” somewhere inside the center of the bow so it won’t be seen in the final product.

Since it would take a bunch of photos and a lot of possibly confusing writing to illustrate how to make the bows, I instead just made a video to demonstrate it. Happy watching!

Reader Tip: Aldona, one of my readers, made a JUMBO version of the template to create an awesome bow to tie back her curtains with. Because it was SO big, simply sewing it together did not work {she also tried to staple it–it just was too thick}. To make it work, she found some 2-inch brass fasteners online to hold it all together and that did the trick!