How to Make a Tick Tock Cheer Bow

Tick Tock cheer bows are all the rage. Luckily, they are easy and fun to make. In this tutorial, I'll show you how I make my red and black confetti tick tock cheer bows.

Choosing the Fabric

Before you begin making your bow, you'll need to chose two fabrics. In general, you'll want to fabrics that have the same finish. For example, you don't want to use a cotton fabric for one side and spandex for the other. It simply won't look good. Use two metallic spandex fabrics, two mystique spandex fabrics or contrasting cotton fabrics.

For this particular bow, I use a confetti dot fabric that comes in many colors. This way, I can mix and match my colors and the bow will still look cohesive. The problem with this material is that the confetti dots are actually glued on to the fabric - as soon as heat touches those dots, they melt off. While this is a bit problematic, there is a way to work around it so that you don't lose any dots when adhering the fabric to the 

What You Need

For the first part of this project, you'll only need a few items:

• Two complementary pieces of fabric
• Two pieces of Heat n' Bond adhesive 
• 3-inch grosgrain ribbon (36 inches in length)
• Iron
• Silicone Paper

My fabrics, Heat n' Bond strips and grosgrain ribbon.

Finishing Your Cheer Bow

So you've successfully folded your bow... Now what? If you finished our "Folding Your Cheer Bow" tutorial, you have a folded piece of ribbon that looks quite unfinished. In this tutorial, we'll show you how to add the finishing touches and make your cheer bow wearable.

This is the finished bow I'm going to be making today.

DISCLAIMER: For this step, you will need to use a glue gun. Glue guns are very hot and can cause burns if you are not paying attention. You will also need to use a lighter briefly. Always get an adult's permission and help when using hot equipment.

What you will need:

• Your folded cheer bow
• 3/8-inch grosgrain ribbon
• Scrap piece of ribbon
• Ponytail holder
• Glue gun
• Transparent/clear glue for your glue gun
• Parchment/silicone paper and tape (I recommend painters tape or something that can be easily removed and doesn't leave residue)
• Scissors
• Lighter

Glue Gun Tip: Go with a glue gun that has a precision tip. This will make it much easier to keep the glue where you want it.

Everything you need to make a really pretty bow.

Beginners' Guide to Cheer Bow Materials

When you are searching for the perfect cheer bow to buy, you're most likely looking at a bow that is made from spandex/lycra fabric or glitter vinyl. Unless the seller is printing their own designs on fabric, this can be pretty limiting when you are looking for a specific bow.

One of the things I love about being able to make my own cheer bows is that I'm not limited to basic fabric designs or simple glitter designs. If I want a glow-in-the-dark spiderweb bow for Halloween, I can make it. If I want to make a decoden 3D bow, I can. It may take some experimenting, but I love the idea that cheer bows are essentially a blank canvas.

Before you get to the experimenting, however, having some knowledge about basic bow materials and how they act can be very helpful.

From left to right: Bow made with only black grosgrain ribbon (unfinished), bow made with pink
spandex/lycra, bow made with black and gold glitter vinyl, bow made with metallic mesh.