Supplies you will need: Most of these items can be found at your local craft store or Wally World :o)
- 1/4" or 3/4" grosgrain ribbon, about 5 yards. (the smaller the ribbon width the thinner the curls)
- Small wooden clothes pins (you can usually find these at the craft store)
- A cigarette lighter or a wood burning tool.
- Scissors
- Large needle & strong thread
- Wooden dowel rods in 1/4" or 5/16", cut into 12" lengths (you can experiment with the different dowel sizes for a different looking curl)
- Hair Clip (pony holder, french barrette or alligator clips work nice)
- Glue gun with glue sticks (i like to use a glue gun with a low temp as to not burn yourself)
- Tape measure or ruler
- An oven
- Aluminum foil
- Metal cookie sheet
Tips & Ideas before you begin:
To make a colorful bow try using different ribbon colors, maybe 5 different colors 1 yard of each... Mixing dots and stripes also looks nice. Try not to use ribbon with a lot of design on it as they tend to stick to the sticks. The lighter ribbon colors will take longer to curl, the darker ribbon curls faster.
Lets Get Started!
Making your curls
Wrap your ribbon! Start by securing the end of your ribbon onto the wooden dowel stick with your wooden clothes pin, use caution to not overlap your ribbon as you twirl the ribbon around the dowel. Keep each ribbon turn close to the last turn as you make your way down the dowel for a full korker look. (you can also experiment by leaving space between each curl for different looking curls). When you reach the end of your dowel stick secure the ribbon with a clothes pin and cut it. Curl all your remaining ribbon, and wrap like colors up in foil to prevent the different color ribbons from touching and transferring color. Wrap in foil very well to prevent any exposed ribbon. Place all your foil wrapped dowels on your cookie sheet and bake at 275 for about 15-20 minutes. Use caution to not let any part of the ribbon touch your oven, this could melt the ribbon. When the time is up, remove your ribbon (keeping it wrapped up) and let it cool (wrapped up)for about 30 minutes, or until cool to the touch. Remove your curled ribbon from the dowels! (i like to keep my dowels for light ribbon colors and dowels for dark ribbon colors separate so the next time you use them it doesn't transfer color onto the new ribbon)
Cutting & Sealing your curls Cut them up! I like to make a standard korker size bow with ribbon cuts of 2.5 inches. (experiment with different lengths for larger and smaller bows). Using your scissors and a tape measure or ruler, cut all your curled ribbon into 2.5" pieces. If you have a wood burning tool with a slanted attachment you can use this to cut and seal the ends of your ribbon, two in one process saves a lot of time, use the same method measure out your ribbon to the 2.5" make and slide the wood burning tool across the ribbon to cut and seal. I think a korker with at least 40 pieces looks best. If you are not using a wood burning tool and have cut your pieces with scissors you will need to seal the ends. A lot of people will tell you to use fray check or some other liquid sealer, but i have to say in my opinion it does not look as good or work nearly as well as a hot sealed end. You can use a lighter to seal the ends of your ribbon, by running the end of the ribbon through the lower part of the flame it will melt the ends slightly for a permanent seal. Use caution not to burn yourself or start the ribbon on fire. I use the cigarette lighter on low and run the ribbon through the blue part of the flame, you just want to melt it not light it.
Assembling your curls
Now that you have all your pieces cut and sealed you can get out your large needle and thread. You will want to thread your needle with about 12" of a good strong thread and knot the end of the thread really well with a big knot. Stab the needle through the korker piece, into the middle of the piece. but do not let the piece go all the way through the needle. Stop at the bottom of the needle. Start stacking your pieces, one at a time, stab the needle through the middle of the korker piece and pull down to stack on top of each other, but do not go all the way through the needle, stopping at the bottom of the needle. Spread out the korker pieces as you stack them on top of eachother one by one to make a full korker bow. Once you have all your pieces stabbed onto the needle, stacked up and spread around, pull your needle and thread all the way through, holding onto your korker bow, pinch down tight on to the bow to keep it in place. Make sure you do not pull too hard or you will pull the thread right through the pieces. Now you are going to find a good path from side to side on your bow to wrap your thread around. Start by wrapping your thread from side to side around the bow, pulling gently each wrap to secure the thread. Your thread should hide nicely into your bow so it will not be seen. After about 3-4 wraps around the whole bow, (wrap around it like you are wrapping around the center of the bow) take a stab through the bottom of your bow, about where you started you will see your knot you made in your thread, and make a few knots to secure your ribbon, this will be the place where you will glue your clip on, the bottom of your bow. Turn your bow up right and i like to tie a knot into the very top korker, to hide the thread. Now you should have what looks like a korker hair bow!
Securing your clip
A pony holder: find the bottom of your bow, put a small amount of glue about a pea size, onto the bottom of the bow, quickly place your pony holder onto the glue and securely tie a piece of korker from the bow over the pony holder. All the glue with get mixed in, this will help to keep it together.
French Barrette: open your clip and remove the tension bar. Find the top of your clip and place a small ribbon of glue across the top of your clip. Find the bottom of your bow and place & hold clip onto the bow for about 30 seconds. Let it stand for a couple of minutes. Replace the tension bar and you now have a clip!
Pinch clip: I have only used covered pinch clips, see how to cover a pinch clip. Place a small amount of glue across the pinch clip, use caution not to get the glue into the gears of the clip as this will ruin the clip. Find the bottom of your bow and place clip onto the bottom, hold firmly for about 1 minute. Let it stand for a few minutes to dry and you now have a clip!
Krinkle Ribbon
to make krinkle pieces, you will need a sewing machine. Cut about 8-10" of the same ribbon you have used for your korker pieces. With your sewing machine set on the longest stitch setting, sew dow the center of the ribbon, leaving excess of thread cut the ribbon of the machine. Take the bottom bobbin ribbon and pull gently to krinkle the ribbon, do not pull out the ribbon pull the ribbon towards the center and gather up the ribbon. When your ribbon has gathered, use the same baking method for the korker pieces above, after baking & cooling remove the thread and you will have a krinkle piece. Cut into the desired length and use just like the korker pieces.
