Hair Clip Crafter

Well, definitely been a minute or two...or weeks, since I've been on here. I could never find what I felt was a good enough reason to post. I've definitely done a lot in the past year, but I don't like just doing angry posts, and sadly most of my time when I have time to write I feel angry.


BUT!
Today is not that sort of day.
I set aside time to do crafts. I spent a month in Korea away from all my things, and spent all my time looking at other people's things on Pinterest.
So the project I decided to so is one I've been wanting to do FOREVER. It's pretty easy, but setting aside the time to do anything is a problem I have.
One day when I was out in Japan, shopping, I came across this:

It's a hair clip that looks like a bow! Genius! Well, I bought it, and I wear it most of the time. And I got to thinking to myself. I can make this...

So I went to a nearby Daiso (100 yen store, they're my favorite places to shop. Way better than $1 stores) and I bought a hair clip. I bought my fabric at the nearby crafts store, Tokai Heart. They have baskets of fabric that's left over, or meant for other projects. But works perfectly for me. :D

Other things I needed: 

Glue gun

scissors

clear nail polish

pins (cuz I'm lazy)

And now I'm ready to start!!

 I folded the fabric in half and laid the clip on it to determine the width I'd need, and I cut it slightly wider than the clip is on both sides. You also need to cut a piece to put over the top of the clip too. 

This fabric was already fraying just from me handling it, so I needed to do something about that. 

I don't have a sewing machine here with me, so I use any shortcuts I can. For fraying fabric clear nail polish works wonders.

I just paint around the edges of all my fabric pieces. It's dark fabric so I don't have to worry about it showing much. Lighter fabric you'd have to be more careful.

Measuring the size of the piece that goes over the top of the clip. If you don't want to add this piece I doubt it makes a difference. I've also seen clips where the bow was on top instead of the sides. Maybe I'll try that one day...

 So above is one of the bow I made. I took my fabric and I folded each side in so they met in the middle in the back. From there it is just a matter of bunching the fabric up so it has the look you want. I went with four folds in mine, makes gluing it easier that way.

Folding the pieces back in this way gives the bow some substance, so it's not thin feeling.

 I cut long strips to wrap around the bow. I folded the pieces slightly to get the width I wanted, and its a nice look. I would have done more folds, but I would have needed wider fabric strips. I played around with it for a bit before deciding on this. After that it's a matter of cutting it the length you need to wrap around the center of the bow. I didn't do mine tightly because I wanted my bow to flare out more.
After that I glued the ends of the strip together. So you have a ring, like below. Then sliding the bow through it is easy.

It's cute!

 So you make two bows in that manner.
Now it's time to clue everything to the clip.
I haven't used a glue gun in years, so I forgot how fast hot glue cools. It's a rush against time!

 I glued the center fabric on first. That was the easy part.

 Next I loaded on the glue to put the bow on. I looks all messy here, but I assure you it's not that bad. XD

Since I did four folds for my bow I was able to take the center crease and that's what I ended up pressing into the hot glue.

 Finished Product!
I'll probably buy a smaller clip next time and make smaller ones. But I have so much hair that for now I have to use larger clips.