This is a tutorial for leather hair bows with free printable and SVG bow templates that you can use to make your own.

My daughter’s hair finally grew long enough to do something with so I made a set of faux leather hair bows.

I have to say, I didn’t quite get the craze until I made these but I’m a little bit addicted now.

They are so easy to make and you really can’t go wrong with any combination of colors and designs. Even the single color layered bow looks super elegant.

I made a set of different basic and slightly more elaborate bow designs all of which you can mix and match.

If you decide to layer the designs, you may have to resize the top layer a little bit smaller as to not overwhelm the base layer.

I made these using faux leather but there are so many other materials you can use for bows. I thought the variety available in faux leather made for cute bows but I’m going to recycle an old leather bag soon and see if these designs work with real leather as well.

The next thing about faux leather is it is so easy to work with. It cuts easily, it flexes well, you can use virtually any type of glue. The best part is, it is super affordable so when my daughter misplaces the accessory, it’d not a big deal and I just make a new one.

These basic and butterfly bow templates are all free and available in SVG and printable formats in my resource library.

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Materials for DIY Hair Bow

Leather, Faux Leather or Felt – I used faux leather in this batch of bows but felt works just as well. Here are a few of my favorite assorted sets:

• Cricut Faux Leather Sampler: while they are the most expensive, they are the easiest to cut with just a fine point blade.
• Full assorted set from Amazon
• Metallic and Pastel assorted set from Amazon
• Metallic Pastels set from Amazon

Hot Glue Gun – I have this super cheap and reliable one from Amazon.

Hair clip or band – Here’s a nice kit that has both alligator clips and hair ties.

Cutting Machine – I use a Cricut. Check out my recommendations for Cricut machines and accessories for beginners for more info.

A cutting machine is not absolutely necessary but it sure makes things go faster.

How to make faux leather hair bows using the Cricut

Step 1: Cut material from free printable for SVG hair bow template

Both faux leather and felt are super easy to cut and can be done by hand with scissors.

If you are cutting the templates using a cutting machine, I have a few tips.

A lot of the non-name brand faux leather, especially if it is a solid color or metallic finish is super soft. It makes it hard to cut with a cutting machine because it snags.

My first recommendation is to put it smooth side down on at least a green standard grip mat if not a purple Strong grip mat. Fair warning, I leave my more used mats for this project because it tends to leave fuzz.

If you have a Cricut Maker and a Rotary blade, use that with the felt setting.

If you only have a fine point blade or a Cricut Explorer, I would try and stick this faux leather fuzzy side on a piece of transfer tape and then sticking the transfer tape side down on the mat. The leather is a little textured and sometimes the transfer tape has a better grip.

Step 2: Hot glue gun the ends of the bow cutout

This can’t get more straight forward. I usually apply a dot, press and hold for 5 seconds and its set.

I then glue each layer on top of each other.

When possible, try and have one side of the glue touching some felt. The felt part of the faux leather grips the leather/smooth side a little bit better and holds the piece in places.

Step 3: Add the final middle cover strip

You may have to resize this piece a bit depending on how much you’ve layered and what size you cut the bow templates.

Resizing can always just be done manually with scissors.

Step 4: Attached to clip or hair band

If you are using an alligator clip, you can either glue the bow directly onto the clip or wrap the alligator clip with a small piece of ribbon first.

If you are attaching the bow to a hairband, usually a zip tie works best as an attaching mechanism. You make the attachment before adding the final leather strip so you can cover it.

Interested in more accessories like this? Check out all my project templates in my Premium SVG Membership.

Faux Leather Hair Bow Template Free

There are plenty of faux leather hair bow templates free you can download from my Resource Library. To access the files, you just need to sign up for my newsletter. Once you download your free hair bow SVG for Cricut, you can use the cut files to make butterfly hair bows and other faux leather hair accessories.

These DIY bows are perfect to make with your children for their friends. If you want to jazz up your hair bow design, you can use glitter faux leather. Definitely, this is perfect for any child with a taste for sparkles.

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