How To Make Hair Bows For Your Dolls—A Quick And Easy Doll Craft!

I love hair bows!  They provide a quick way to dress up any doll’s outfit.  Thankfully, they are also easy to make.  Cute bows can be created out of almost any material, such as fabric, felt, ribbon, duck tape…..even fuzzy chenille sticks! Usually I prefer bows made from ribbon.

However, I recently used duck tape to make Elsa a Finding Nemo bow (to go with her Finding Nemo dress) and am thrilled with how it turned out!

Bow For Doll Made From Duct Tape

For extra dimension, I placed two bows on top of each other (with one being slightly smaller than the other) before pinching and taping around their middles.

Elsa Animator Doll With Duct Tape Hair BowI think it adds a nice touch:)

While I was making this project, though, I got the idea to also create some smaller, Barbie sized bows using Washi tape instead of duck tape.  After a bit of trial and error, I figured out how to make these super cute bows that are perfect for 12″ dolls!

How to make hair bows for your Barbie dolls

Supplies needed:
Image Of Craft Supplies

1. A ruler

2. Washi tape

3. Scissors

4. Clear, elastic hair bands (I got mine from Wal-Mart)

  • Start by cutting two strips of Washi tape.  Make one piece about 2″ long and the other about an inch long.

Cut Washi Tape Into Strips

  • Cut the 1″ strip again, lengthwise.  You should have one 2″ piece of tape and two, very skinny pieces.

  • Set the skinny pieces aside.  You will use one of these later on to make the knot of the bow.

Fold Washi Tape In Half With Sticky Sides Together

  • Fold the 2″ strip of tape in half, placing the sticky sides together

  • Trim up the ends if needed.

  • Pinch the tape together in the middle.

Pinch Middle Of Tape

  • Then take one of the skinny strips of tape (you shouldn’t need the other) and start wrapping it around the pinched section.

  • As you are wrapping the tape, slide a small, clear elastic band over it and secure the band to the back of the bow with the tape.

 

 

The bow is complete but may be looking kind of flat.  To fix this, gently fan out each end section with your fingers to give it a nice, full look.

Barbie Doll Bows Made From Washi Tape

 

 

 

 

 

There you have it!  A tiny bow for your Barbie dolls:

Elsa And Anna With Washi Tape Hair Bows

 

 

Rosetta Doll With Red Washi Tape Hair Bow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And you don’t have to use the same colored tape for the bow’s knot.  For example, on one bow I used glittery blue Washi tape to make the 2″ base and shiny, metallic tape to make the skinny strip for the knot.

So have fun mixing and matching colors to create your own, uniquely styled, Washi tape bow and let us know what you think of this craft!