Alisha - How to line an alligator clip

For anyone with a little girl you know the price of hair bows can be outrageous so I went on a quest to learn how to make them myself and save the cost. Great idea but I ended up with a lot of cost in ribbon to have the variety I wanted. Lined alligator clips can be cute especially if you find specialty ribbons and they are super fast to make.

 First you'll need to chose which color ribbon you'll want to make your hair clips. Yes, I think I have a problem but I like options :)

Supplies:
3/8" gross grain ribbon
alligator clip
hot glue cut scissors
fray check or lighter

First you'll need to lay your ribbon out and cut 1 length 4.5" long. I use my rotary cutter but it's perfectly fine to use scissors.

You'll want to treat the ends of your ribbon to avoid fraying. I use fray check - just dab a little bit on the end. If you'd rather you can heat seal them with a lighter. The idea of heat sealing is not to put the ribbon in the flame but next to it - you're just trying to melt it a little. (I used fray check on this picture and you can see the ends are a little darker than the middle of the ribbon - that's because it's wet and when it dries it looks completely normal.)

Start by placing your ribbon next to your alligator clip and heat up your glue gun. Place a bead of glue down the center of your ribbon the same length of the alligator clip (see picture). Quickly open the alligator clip and place the bead of glue in the middle of the clip (kind of like you're putting it where the roof of it's mouth might be).

Run another bead of glue up the tines of the alligator clip and press the ribbon on to the bead of glue. Make sure the ribbon is wrapped somewhat tightly around the tines.

 Here's what it looks like when you've got the ribbon pressed into the glue.

Use another dab of glue in the piece you pinch and push the fabric down.

 Place two dabs of glue, one on the upper portion of the squeeze part and one on the lower and push the ribbon on to it. I suggest holding it in place to be sure its secure. Now some may choose to skip this step and just go to directly gluing the ribbon to the bottom of the clip - I prefer the glued look and it leaves less space for the ribbon to get caught and pulled on by small fingers but by all means do this according to your preference.

Lastly run a bead of glue on the last portion of ribbon, wrap around the bottom and secure in place.









There you have a finished lined alligator clip, you can now personalize with buttons, cabochons or beads.

Alisha