Looking for an easy tutorial on how to make a big wreath bow. Here’s a how to add a bow and my best tip on how to tie it.

Adding a wreath to a bow is easy if you have a few tips. I also want to share my best source for oversized ribbons and what I used to make the bow.

 

I’m hosting a graduation party next weekend so I did all the things that a graduation party hoster does.

I cleaned the front door and the back door and everything in between.

I planned fun games and activities and arranged for the cutest front-door greeters.

I decided what the menu looked like and how the party would flow and thought about if a balloon arch was in this party’s future.

And then?

I ordered chair sashes to make the chairs look even cuter.

But when the chair sashes showed up?

A brilliant decorating arrived right about the same time.

And I decided that chair sashes are just for chairs because…

….you can do this with them instead.

Just in case you read that first paragraph and took a sip of coffee and asked yourself, “What in the world is a chair sash?”

You would not be alone.

Chair sashes are definitely an unknown to so many people.

Let me introduce to the CUTEST idea for a party. A chair sash is in essence a giant oversized ribbon for a chair. They typically are about 8 inches wide and 108 inches long. All you do is tie them around the chair (usually a folding chair) and they immediately elevate a folding chair into something fancy.

They come in zillions of colors (I almost went with the blue and white, but it’s more of a royal blue) so I’m going to add these to chairs on the porch.

You can see the chair sashes that I ordered here.

 

|| 20″ boxwood wreath || chair sash ||

And when the chair sashes showed up and I unfolded them from the package?

I was reminded that they are just giant oversized ribbons.

And guess what I had been looking for to put on the wreath on the back door (and maybe the front door now that this looked so cute)?

You GUESSED IT. A ribbon.

But here’s the thing. Do you know how expensive oversized wreath ribbons are?

Yikes.

But guess what’s NOT expensive?

Yep.

Chair sashes.

And those chair sashes make the perfect ribbon for a wreath because they are so easy to tie and the ribbon is so large that it looks extra fancy on a wreath.

|| striped rug || planters || topiaries || boxwood wreath || black house lanterns (similiar) ||

Like this.

Remember when we tied scarves on wreaths at Christmas time?

This is just like that.

Except a little more springy.

And here’s how I turned a chair sash into a wreath ribbon in five minutes.

How To Make a Big Wreath Bow

20″ boxwood wreath

chair sash

|| 20″ boxwood wreath || chair sash ||

1. wrap the chair sash

The challenge with using a chair sash as a bow is that you’ll discover the chair sash is actually little long for a bow.

It’s 108″.

No worries. You have a couple of options. First pull back the edges of the boxwood to reveal the wreath and then:

1. You can just tie a bow and let the ends hang longer
2. You can do what I did and wrap the chair sash around the wreath several times before you tie the bow
3. I actually (you can see it in the picture) made a loop after I wrapped and pulled the ends through the loop
4. You could also fold it in half and pull it through like a sash and let the ends hang

There are a lot of possibilities with a chair sash.

|| 20″ boxwood wreath || chair sash ||

2. Tie the bow

You’ve wrapped it or tied it once or looped it around. Now all that’s left is to tie the bow.

Here’s my best bow-tying tip.

(You may already use it, but once you figure it out—your bow will hang perfectly every time.)

To get the perfect bow, you just have to tie the bow backwards. In other words, tie the bow the opposite way you normally tie a bow. For example, I start with the loop in my right hand, then I loop the ribbon around the loop with my left hand and pull it through to form the bow.

Instead? When I’m tying a wreath bow, I start with the loop in my left hand, then I loop the ribbon around the loop with my right hand and pull it through to form the bow.

If you use your left hand to hold the first loop? The bow will lay perfectly every time.

total aside: I am crossing my fingers (and my ribbon) that you understand that explanation.

|| striped rug || planters || topiaries || boxwood wreath ||

black house lanterns (similiar) ||

 

|| striped rug || planters || topiaries || boxwood wreath ||

black house lanterns (similiar) ||

 

|| striped rug || planters || topiaries || boxwood wreath ||

black house lanterns (similiar) ||

Then you just fluff the end of your ribbon and hang the wreath.

I am so happy I ordered those chair sashes. I have decorations for my chairs and wreath bows to match.

Now the back porch and the back door are all ready for a graduation party.

Maybe I should make chair-sash-bow-tying one of the party games. 🙂

PS If you are following me on Instagram I’m sharing a video of the porch today.

disclosure: affiliate links are used in this post.

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