Do you ever walk by accessory stores selling super cute hair clips, and think, for the price of two pairs of clips, you can buy a few materials and make like, 50 clips yourself?  And then, you end up buying the two pairs of clips anyways because it would take too much time and effort to make them yourself.

When my daughter finally started growing more hair, that was really exciting for me.  For the first two years of her life, she looked like a boy, and strangers would always say, “what a sweet boy, he is so cute,” and I would just go with it because I was tired of pointing out that he is a she.  This even happened when she wore dresses, so, whatever, shrug.

So she finally had enough hair for me to do stuff to it.  I happened to have leftover ribbon from other projects, so I tried my hand at making hair clips.  Suddenly, I found myself scouring craft stores for their sale and clearance ribbons, and now I have a lot of ribbon.

A few days ago, I was at Joann’s, and I saw fall themed ribbons on sale, and I couldn’t resist getting a sparkly orange ribbon.  I already had some black ribbon at home, so I decided to make Halloween hair clips.  Here is my model with the finished Halloween flower hair clip.

I got out my glue gun, scissors, ribbon, 2 alligator hair clips (use clips with no teeth), 2 gems, needle and thread, and Fray Check.  I used a shiny orange ribbon, black satin ribbon, and a thin sparkly black ribbon.  You can use whatever color thread you want since it won’t be seen in the end.  Fray Check is a liquid seam sealant that keeps fabric from fraying.  It’s not necessary, but I get paranoid and like to dab a bit on the ends of the ribbon, just in case.

The alligator clips are 1.75″ long.  I cut two 6.5″ pieces of shiny orange ribbon, and two 6.5″ pieces of thin sparkly black ribbon.  I dabbed a tiny bit of Fray Check on the ends of the ribbon.

I used the glue gun to first glue the orange ribbon onto the clip.  The ribbon is long enough to cover the entire outside of the clip, and most of the underside of the clip.  I worked in small sections because the hot glue cools fast and I didn’t want to rush and screw up.  I started from the inside, and worked my way around the clip.

After I glued on the orange ribbon, I glued the thin black ribbon on top of the orange ribbon.

Ok, so they look kind of like caterpillars right now.

I cut sixteen 1.9″ pieces of orange ribbon, and sixteen 1.5″ pieces of black satin ribbon.  Each flower needs 8 orange and 8 black pieces.  Depending on how big you want your flower to be, you can make these pieces longer or shorter.  I dabbed some Fray Check on each ribbon end.

I stacked one orange piece with a black piece and went through the center of one end with the needle and thread.

I stacked the other end of the two pieces and connected the other end with the needle and thread to make a loop.

I made loops with 8 sets of orange and black pieces.  See where I’m going with this?

After I finished making the 8th loop, I tied a knot at the end of the thread and cut the extra off.

I used the glue gun to connect the ends of the first and last loops.  Fluff the loops out if they got squished.  Then I glued a gem to the middle of the flower.

Glue the finished flower to the hair clip.  Now do everything again to make the second flower.

Yay!  Cute hair clips.  One of these days, I need to get a tripod so I can make video tutorials.  Let me know if you have questions.