That elusive perfect bow!

Top Tip!

Everybody wants to know how to tie the perfect bow and let me tell you, I've spent plenty of time researching it.  I've seen beautiful bows yet when I've tried to tie them myself, they sit at an odd angle or even upside down, I've also had the tails settle with one pointing up and the other pointing down!

This has been a huge frustration for me in the past and I just couldn't figure out where I was going wrong.  One of the main challenges that I have is that I'm left handed!  Being a left handed gift wrapper is no joke in a right handed world!  I've had to teach myself all the techniques the right handed way so that I don't confuse my fellow Wrappers!

Yet even when I taught myself the right handed way, my bows were still coming out lopsided!  Sitting one afternoon, tying bow after bow, trying to figure out where I was going wrong, it finally dawned on me!  It wasn't that I was tying the BOWS the wrong way, it was that I had the very foundation of the bow wrong! This is an error which I do not believe to be unique to me as a left handed person, but if it is, then I'm so happy to help out all the lefties in the gift wrapping world.

Here is where I was going wrong!  When I brought the ribbon up around the box to tie the bow on top, that very first cross over 'knot' was being crossed over the wrong way.  If you find that you also have the problem that your bows land up sitting at an angle or even upside down, when you tie that very first cross over knot, try reversing the way that you do it.  i.e. if you bring the ribbon from the right and cross it over the ribbon on the left to pull through the back, try crossing the ribbon in your left hand toward the ribbon in your right.

Below is an example of how I originally crossed the ribbon from the right to the left.  This is wrong!

This is an example of how it SHOULD be done.  Cross over from left to right!

I hope you found this tip useful and that it makes your quest for the perfect bow somewhat easier.  What a relief it was to finally get my bows to sit right on the gift!  It's tips like these, and so much more, hours of research through the years, that you can expect to learn on my Gift Wrap Course.   Contact me on info.wrapforyou@gmail.com for more information.

Yours in gift wrapping...