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How to Adorn a Present: Bows and Poufs!

Lauren Boggs Meslar

beve gift wrap sheets happy pink merry greenYou may have noticed that here at beve, we're big fans of fabric and textiles. It's no surprise then that one of my favorite ways to finish off a wrapped gift is to use yarn. Some great things about yarn are that it doesn't flip over like store bought ribbon and it can be reused more easily. Personally, it's something that's convenient too as I always have yarn hanging around my house. I'm going to share two pretty ways to adorn a wrapped present with yarn.

TIE A SIMPLE BOW

how to tie a bow on a present how to tie a bow on a present

First, tie your yarn, ribbon or twine around your gift. Knot it at center or wherever you'd like it to hit. Second, make two loops with your yarn, as shown.

how to tie a bow on a present 

Third, tie these two loops in a basic over/under knot (like at the base of your shoe laces) and pull tight. Finally, make sure your loops are evenly sized and pull the loops to the top of your bow and the strands to the bottom. This "bunny ear" method allows for the loops and strands to be positioned more easily than a traditional tie allows, so the loops stay at the top instead of having a loop, strand, loop, strand orientation. This bow is great for a simple bow that hangs nicely, whether on a present or the back of a dress.

 

HOW TO MAKE A POUF or POM POM!

Start by wrapping a hefty yarn around your fingers. If you want a smaller pouf or pom pom, use just two fingers or a dinner fork. If you want a larger pouf, use four fingers. Keep in mind, the bigger the pouf, the more yarn you need to wrap around to give it a nice, full look. Also, if you're using a thinner yarn, you'll need to wrap your fingers more. TIP: I also like to spread the 'wrap' out so that you end up with more consistent-length strands of yarn. If you wrap in the same spot on your hand, the outer wraps will make longer strands, resulting in an oblong pouf.
Once you have wrapped the yarn around your fingers, you can either feed the end of the yarn you're wrapping with OR a separate piece of yarn through your fingers to cinch the middle of the yarn together. I usually try to do this on my fingers and then pull the yarn off of my fingers. Once it's off, I pull the cinching yarn tighter, wrap the yarn around the cinched area another time or two and tie the cinch off. Leave this "tail" intact so you can tie it onto your gift later.
Take a pair of sharp scissors and cut the loops of your yarn bundle. Try to cut at the very end of the loop. Do this on both sides (and again, try not to snip the tail/s from your cinched yarn). Note: You'll have one 'tail' if you used the yarn from making the loops and two 'tails' if you used a separate piece of yarn. Either way is fine :)
Once all of your loops are cut, you'll want to fluff up the ends to fill out the pouf.
It's also likely that you'll want to trim your pouf up to get more of a spherical shape. Again, using sharp scissors here makes this task much easier.
Once your pouf is trimmed up, it's ready to attach to your gift. Use your tail/s from cinching the pouf to attach it to your gift by tying it into the yarn surrounding the gift. Once it's nice and tight, you can snip the tail to the same length as the pouf yarns. Note: You'll have one 'tail' if you used the yarn from making the loops and two 'tails' if you used a separate piece of yarn. Either way is fine :)
And now you're ready to adorn your lovely gift!
beve red green plaid gift wrapping paper
Poufs/Pom poms are a great way to finish off a present for a little one. All three poufs featured in this blog post (red at the top, coral from demo and white just above) are still floating around in Lennox's toy bin. She loves playing with them.
Ah, the simple pleasures :)


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