The Hair Band: Ribbon Pony Holder Tutorial

I am in love with ribbon these days... Little Miss & I have been saving up posts to do a series of styles using a very simple ribbon-related technique that we've been doing lately. It's gonna be good! :) But in the meantime, I thought I'd post this tutorial. I went a little crazy at Hobby Lobby in their ribbon section last weekend, and thought I'd use my new ribbons to make a ponytail holder for Little Miss. Little Miss' hair is not long enough for a full pony yet, so we use it as more of a pull-back holder. :) This pony holder is made up of three of Little Miss' favorite things: princesses, cupcakes, and PINK! It is the Little Miss pony holder.

I have to say one more thing about ribbon... I confess, I am a ribbon scavenger. I wait, drooling, for bedecked gifts to be opened, then sneak the ribbon off to my ribbon drawer before it gets lost in the post-unwrapping chaos. Also, shopping bag handles. Several stores frequently found in malls use ribbons as the handles for their bags. I just un-knot them, or cut off the ends if they're unusable. Instant hair ribbons!

The original instructions for this pony holder are from two videos on YouTube, and can be found here and here. I've modified and combined them a little bit.

You'll need:

* a bunch of different ribbons, each about twice the length of your wearer's hair when in a ponytail (or any desired length!)

* scissors

* clear nail polish or a lighter

* low-temp glue gun

* damp sponge (for the glue gun)

* a plain hair band

1) Prep the Ribbons: Choose whatever ribbons you want... you can be crazy, and not try to match anything; do all solid colors; do a theme; or choose coordinating ribbons of the same general color. I chose the last one. I cut all of mine to about 13 inches. I did a simple angled cut on most, with a "V" cut on a couple. I then used a lighter on the ends to heat-seal them so they would not fray. To do this, have the lighter lit, then very quickly run the edges of the ribbon over the flame. If you've done it right, you may be able to feel a tiny bit of stiffness at the very ends, or nothing at all. If you leave it on too long, the ribbon will shrivel up and have a burnt look and smell to it. Just cut this part off and try again. If you'd rather not use fire, use clear nail polish. It works just as well, but it takes a while to dry completely and can leave a bit of a watermark, especially on satin ribbon. Here are my ribbons, cut, sealed, and ready to go:

2) Glue the Ribbons: Place the widest ribbon like so on your work surface. It will be your base.

Using a low-temp hot glue gun, place a glob of hot glue in the middle. Wipe the glue gun on a damp sponge immediately afterwards to prevent those awful flying glue strands of death.

Lay one ribbon across the main ribbon at an angle, pressing for the glue to adhere.

Continue this for all ribbons, adding glue individually for each ribbon added. Admittedly, I laid mine out (without glue) a couple of times first, to help me decide how I was going to lay the ribbons.

When the glue is dry, this is what it will look like picked up:

3) Turn it into a Pony Holder: Cut another piece of ribbon, just a little longer than the others (in the picture, mine is shorter than this), and heat-seal the ends. Tie a single knot in the middle. If it's not a reversible ribbon, make sure as you tie it to get the "right" side facing up the whole length of the ribbon.

Hot-glue this ribbon across the others, with the knot in the middle, like this:

Flip the whole thing over, and glue a hair band to the back. Make sure you use this orientation, rather than gluing the hair band horizontally!

It should be free-standing, like this, when dry...

Now tie the ends of the horizontal ribbon inside the hair band, pulling the other ribbons as tight as they can comfortably go. Add a little hot glue underneath where this knot will land before you pull it tight.