We all started somewhere....first hair bows

I sometimes get comments from people about making hair bows, hoping their bows look just like mine the first time they try it out. And I wanted to share this -- my bows didn't look "just like mine" the first time I made them!

I thought I had my original photos of my first bows back in August 2006, but it looks like I mercifully deleted them at some point. But I dug up some of my originals. I started making layered boutique bows in August 2006. Some of these are the singles I made that first autumn. The layered one on top was made in December 2006, a full four months after I started:

What could I have done better? Well, on the single bows, I really needed to use a longer length of ribbon to make them more full and loopy. I don't know whether the tutorial I purchased didn't share the length with me, or I didn't read it because I was in a rush, LOL! For the top one, it's not bad, but I really needed to shape it better, and the way I was doing the surrounding loops was not a very good method for making them even. I soon taught myself a better method (which I share with you in my boutique bowmaking ebook) and am glad I don't have to mess with floppy surround loops again!

I asked some of my friends on Facebook if they'd mind sharing their first attempts!! This is NOT to make fun of anyone, seriously! Or maybe we can chuckle a bit at ourselves if we want....but it's to show how we started. Sometimes it's prettier than other times.

Dana sent me before-and-after pictures! I'll just post the before picture here....(below) for now. I'll make a call for "after pictures" shortly and use it at that time.

Kimberly sent me a few photos, and I'm showing two of them below:

Joy showed her first bow photos that she made from my instructions, and I must say they are lovely. I'd be happy to pat myself on the back, but I suspect Joy might have some innate bow-making talent here. I struggled when I started; hers look like mine did after six months of practice, lol!!

Kimberley (note different spelling from Kimberly) also was willing to share! She said this is from a couple of years ago:

Stay tuned for some mini tutorials on my private video blog (which you can join for free with the purchase of certain hair bow instructions from Birdsong) - on how to improve your bows! And I'll have a call for "after practice" bows so everyone can see how far we've come. :) Thanks to the good sports who didn't mind sharing their first attempts.