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Daydream Into Reality

Bringing people together through creativity!

Make Hair Bows with your Cricut +18 Free SVG Templates

This post contains Affiliate Links. Read my full disclosure for more info

Updated on June 18, 2020

Hello Daydreamers!

In today’s tutorial, I am going to teach from start to finish how to make beautiful and stunning hair bows with your Cricut machine.

Not only am I going to show you how to make them, but I will also provide you 18 free hair bow templates all in this article!

Ideally, you will read this tutorial from the beginning because, as we go, we will be implementing the concepts mentioned in the previews steps.

variety of hair bow made with the Cricut. Swan, Mermaid, fairy, etc.
Let’s make these bows together!

In a nutshell, these are the topics I am going to be covering in this tutorial.

  • Materials you need to make bows
  • Cricut Design Space steps
  • Cutting and Assemble process
  • Tips and other considerations when making bows
  • 18+ Free SVG bow templates
  • More pics of bows you can make with your Cricut.

Are you ready?

Let’s Daydream Into Reality!

Page Content hide
Materials
Make Hair Bows in Cricut Design Space
Upload Bow
Resize Bow Template
Change Bow Colors
Hair Bow Cutting Setting in Design Space
Material Settings for bows in Cricut Design Space
Cut Bow with your Cricut
Assemble Hair Bows
Free Hair Bows SVG Templates

Materials

Making bows with my Cricut, believe it or not, has been one of the most challenging projects I’ve made so far.

I mean, the steps are easy, but the variety of materials you can find out there to make bows is unlimited and, sometimes, tough to cut.

Don’t worry, though!

I need to start with this, so you trust my recommendations when doing this project.

materials needed for hair bows with cricut
  • Brand New StrongGrip Mat (purple)
  • Fine Point Blade (sharp)
  • Cricut Maker or Explorer
  • Brayer
  • Faux Leather
  • Glitter Canvas (faux leather)
  • Hair Clips
  • Iron-On
  • LightGrip or StandardGrip Mat.
  • Masking Tape
  • Practice File (yellow download button)
Unicorn Bow Free SVG

The rest of the FREE files are in this article after the Step by Step tutorial.

Note: I only used Iron-On on one bow because I wanted to show you different possibilities.

To make these bows, I invested in a wide variety of materials from Amazon. There are so many companies that have so many options. However, I found them to be a little deceiving.

The materials are beautiful!

But, every single glitter sheet that claimed to be “faux leather” was, in fact, canvas, or for very chunky glitter was some sort of fabric.

It’s not a huge deal to me, but it does mean you need to test a lot!

Here are some of the faux leather and glitter canvas I bought.

  • Mermaid Style
  • Pastel Colors Glitter Sheets
  • Mixed Faux leather and glitter canvas (beige colors)
  • Mixed Faux leather and glitter canvas (black and white colors)
  • Chunky Glitter Canvas
  • Variety Pack fine glitter Canvas sheet.

All of these packs have a strong smell before you work with them, let them air out for a couple of days.

Make Hair Bows in Cricut Design Space

For this step by step tutorial, I picked the “Unicorn File” because there’s a lot of details and opportunities for you to learn.

Upload Bow

Download the file (in the materials section) the go to the canvas in Cricut Design Space, and click on the “Upload” button located on the left panel.

uploading hair bow SVG template to Cricut Design Space.

Follow the prompts to upload the bow, then select it from the “Recently uploaded images” and insert it in the canvas.

Follow the prompts to upload the bow, then select it from the “Recently uploaded images” and insert it in the canvas.

Resize Bow Template

This is how the hair bow looks when you upload it. There are multiple colors, and all of the pieces of the bow are grouped.

The first thing you need to do is resize your project.

resizing hair bow in Cricut Design Space

Make sure you resize according to the largest piece. In this case, it is the one at the bottom.

Everything has to increase proportionally!

So select all of the pieces that are part of the bow and type in the width you want.

In this case, I did a width of 6 inches.

Bows need to be folded, do the actual size of this bow be cut in half pretty much. The ears and the horn will be bigger than the larger piece on the canvas.

I think 6 inches is an excellent size for small bows; they end up looking cute. However, you can also make them bigger.

Change Bow Colors

After resizing, ungroup the bow and change the colors of your bow. If you were going to leave it as is, you would need six mats!

That’s ok, but I just wanted four different colors, and all of these colors will represent different materials as well!

To change colors, select the layer, and click on the color box next to “Linetype.”

change hair bow colors in Cricut Design Space

Here’s how my bow looks like, and these are the materials I am going to use per color.

  • Beige & Pink: Chunky glitter canvas
  • Purple: faux leather
  • Yellow: iron-On

The reason why I am using iron-on on the horn is because of the small details. I don’t recommend cutting visible intricate cut on glitter canvas.

hair bow template in Cricut Design Space

Once you’re happy with the colors and size, click on the green “Make it” button.

Hair Bow Cutting Setting in Design Space

It’s time to check out the mats your project needs.

After trial and error (I made more than 100 cuts to bring this article to you), I found that best practices when cutting glitter canvas are to move all pieces leaving an entire inch on the left and one on the top.

Just click on them and move them around.

You also want a functional space between each space.

arranging material on mat in Cricut Design Space

There are two mats where you need to mirror the image if you are using faux leather and iron-on because you will be placing them pretty-side down.

cutting unicorn horn in Cricut Design Space

Once you check all of the mats, go ahead and click on continue to select the materials.

Material Settings for bows in Cricut Design Space

Cutting glitter canvas and faux leather that you buy online it’s quite tricky. I tested multiple options to find the sweet spot.

Those materials don’t exist in Cricut Design Space, so to make bows, we need to create a new material.

It’s quite easy!

On the “Set material” section, click on “Browse all materials.”

browse all materials in Cricut Design Space

A new window will open with the most common materials.

Click on “Material Settings” to add a new material.

Material settings in Cricut Design Space

The information you’ll see is quite interesting!

Here you can see the exact pressure and number of passes your Cricut will perform on each material.

To come up with the settings I am about to show you, I looked at different materials and just played around them.

Before we create the first product, these are the products we are going to crate.

As a reference, a fine glitter canvas sheet can be cut when you select the option “Faux Leather Paper Thin” (an existing material in Design Space) and move the pressure to “more.”

But, as we move in thickness, we need to adjust the settings.

  • Chunky Glitter Canvas (less chunky): It’s the typical glitter that is larger in size. The depth of the glitter is a bit more than fine glitter.
  • Chunky Glitter Canvas: It’s a combination of fine, chunky, less chunky, and really really chunky glitter, it has a lot of texture and hard surfaces. Some of the super chunky glitter sheets can’t be cut with the Cricut (Especially animal printed ones).
  • Faux Leather Thicker: The option in Design Space for paper-thin leather. Most sheets I bough were thicker than paper.

To create a new material type in the name in the “New Custom Material” box and click on save.

adding a new material in Cricut Design Space

Upon saving the new material, you’ll be able to edit it. For chunky glitter (less chunky) canvas, move the pressure to 350, 3x (number of passes), and select the fine point blade.

editing material in Cricut Design Space

For a thick chunky canvas sheet, you’ll need the Deep point blade, move the pressure to 350 and add six passes.

Very thick chunky canvas sheets can be quite hard to cut. Before you commit yourself to a large project, do a test cut.

  • Chunky glitter canvas settings in Cricut Design Space
  • faux leather thicker settings in Cricut Design Space

For faux leather, you need the fine point blade at 350 in pressure, and there’s no need for extra passes.

If you are using Cricut’s faux leather, use the paper-thin material in Design Space.

After creating the new stuff, close the window, go back to browse materials, and select it.

Sometimes, there are chunky glitter canvas sheets that are a little bit extra chunky, it that’s the case move the pressure to “more.”

Let’s start with the cutting process!

Cut Bow with your Cricut

There are two mats where I am cutting Chunky Glitter Canvas (Less Chunky). So I selected from Design Space.

selecting material in Cricut Design Space

Now we are going to organize the material on the mat.

Remember, we move the material one from the left and the top? Do the same thing on the mat.

It’s important to mention that you need a brand new mat when making bows. Otherwise, the material can move and get ruined.

IMPORTANT: Masking tape needs to away from the blade. Make sure to place it away from the cut. Otherwise, your bows won’t cut through.

The brayer is also very important to stick the canvas sheet to the mat.

For fine glitter sheets, you don’t need tape, but the chunkier the glitter is, you may want to add masking tape to add extra security to your project.

Masking tape will be quite handy if your mat is not that sticky.

I am sure you don’t want to buy a mat per every bow you make.

  • using the brayer to place material on cricut mat
  • using masking tape to cut glitter canvas
  • cricut cutting glitter canvas

Once you’re done arranging everything on the mat, feed it to your machine and tap on the flashing “Go” button.

Unload mat, remove the tape, and cuts from the mat.

Here’s the other mat using the same settings.

  • cricut cutting chunky glitter canvas
  • removing pieces from cricut mat

It’s not that hard!

Now let’s cut Foil-Iron On.

Select the material in Cricut Design Space (check mirror is on).

selecting foil iron-on in Cricut Design Space

Place it on the mat “pretty side” down, then load, cut, and weed it!

This tutorial is not an Iron-On tutorial, so I won’t go into detail on how to work with it. But if you are curious, you can check my “How to work with Iron-On tutorial.”

  • placing foil iron on on cricut mat
  • weeding foil iron on
  • unicorn horn made with foil iron on

Now it’s time to cut the faux leather!

selecting faux leather in Cricut Design Space

Once you select the material in Design Space, place the faux leather pretty/pattern/color side down (make sure mirror is on).

If your mat is very new, you don’t need masking tape. If it’s used, I recommend you use it.

Again, avoid placing tape where the blade will cut through.

  • placing faux leather on Cricut mat
  • using masking tape to secure faux leather
  • removing faux leather from Cricut Mat

Load mat to the machine, cut and remove from the mat.

Here are all the pieces we cut.

Are you ready to put the bow together?

bow pieces before assembly

Assemble Hair Bows

Assembling hair bows is the easiest part and most fun part. The only thing you need to consider is the order of each piece.

Here’s a little preview of how the bow should look like.

First, I transferred the foil iron-on to the horn. I used the Easypress Mini and followed Cricut’s heat guide.

Secondly, I glued the inside ears with hot glue. Then I stuck the horn to the ears.

Necessary: Make sure the little cut on the horn is not glued.

  • press foil iron-on on faux leather
  • gluing unicorn ears
  • gluing unicorn horn and ears

It’s time to glue the bows!

Flip them and add a little bit of hot glue in the middle of them, then carefully close the bow.

  • using hot glue on hair bow
  • gluing hair bow
  • putting hair bow together.

Now glue the long bow to the ears, and finally glue the shorter bow. At all times, keep the small unicorn cut visible.

To close the bow, insert the little rectangle through the horn cut and glue on the back.

Securing hair bow with canvas.

Finally, glue a hair clip to complete your bow.

  • securing hair bow
  • adding hair clip to hair bow

Doesn’t it look pretty?

Any girl would love to wear the cute little bow.

Try using different types of hairbands, snap hair clips, etc!

There’s no limit to creativity.

use hairbands, hair clips, and other to use on hair bows.
Different Hair Clips for Bows

Free Hair Bows SVG Templates

Here are 18 bows you can use for your personal use! My great assistant helped me with the designing process.

Isn’t she so creative?

There’s one for any occasion and season!

Oh! And just so you know, I also have a FREE growing library with tons of printables and SVG files ready to be cut.

I would love for you to be able to get access to all of them. It’s 100% Free for my daydreamers (aka subscribers) check out a live preview here, or get access here.

  • Reindeer Bow Free SVG
    Download SVG
  • Winter Bow Free SVG
    Download SVG
  • Unicorn Bow Free SVG
    Download SVG
  • Turkey Bow Free SVG
    Download SVG
  • Swan Bow Free SVG
    Download SVG
  • Star Bow Free SVG
    Download SVG
  • Regular Bow Free SVG
    Download SVG
  • Regular Bow Free SVG 2
    Download SVG
  • Pumpkin Bow Free SVG
    Download SVG
  • Princess Bow Free SVG
    Download SVG
  • Funky Bow Free SVG
    Download SVG
  • Mermaid Bow Free SVG
    Download SVG
  • Ice Cream Bow Free SVG
    Download SVG
  • Four Corners Bow Free SVG
    Download SVG
  • Flower Bow Free SVG
    Download SVG
  • Fairy Bow Free SVG
    Download SVG
  • Cupid Valentines Day Bow Free SVG
    Download SVG
  • Butterfly Bow Free SVG
    Download SVG

You can use the Reindeer one for Christmas.

Note: Princess and winter bow have a square that’s meant to represent a very thin fabric like tulle.

If you have a Maker, you can use the rotary blade, and if you have the Explore, you will need to use a heat-and-bond sheet and pink blade (or fine point blade that’s dedicated to fabrics only).

Here’s a little graphic with the order of each bow in case you have any doubts about how to assemble them.

different hair bows, how they look when assembled.
Use this graphic to assemble your bows

Which one is your favorite?

Look how some of these bows look once cut and assembled.

  • Mermaid hair bow made with Cricut and chunky glitter
  • butterfly bow made with fine glitter canvas
  • flower bow made fine glitter canvas

For the mermaid bow I used super chunky glitter canvas. Can you see the texture in the photo? Those sheets have small pieces of colorful plastic or something thick I can’t quite tell.

Also, for the purple piece in the mermaid hair bow, I would never use glitter canvas, the cut is very intricate.

  • navy blue bow made with cricut
  • swan hair bow made with cricut
    Swan Hair Bow
  • mermaid glitter canvas with different bow styles
    Using Mermaid Glitter Canvas

With mermaid scales glitter canvas, you can give any bow a magical mermaid touch.

Play with different textures and colors!

  • classic hair bow
  • fancy hair bow made with cricut
  • fairy hair bow made with cricut
    Fairy Hair Bow

If you look carefully at the winter and princess bow, you will see the tulle.

It’s so classy and different.

  • winter hair bow made with cricut
    Winter Hair Bow
  • valentines day hair bow
    Cupid Hair Bow
  • princess hair bow made with cricut
    Princess Hairband

If you make any of these bows, make sure to tag me on Instagram. And I would also appreciate a follow!

Don’t forget to pin this tutorial.

I’ll see you in my next article.

Dear Daydreamers!
Due to maternity leave, comments will be turned off from Nov 9th - Feb 9th.
Thank you for your understanding!

Make Cards with the Cricut Joy and the Card Mat
Make & Address Envelopes with Cricut – Free SVG Templates

Comments

  1. Juli says

    November 2, 2020 at 1:07 am

    Thank you so much! I was able to download the files without any trouble! Cannot wait to make these for my granddaughter!

    • Catalina says

      November 9, 2020 at 2:16 pm

      Finally, someone not having trouble downloading the files lol! Your granddaughter is going to look beautiful!

  2. Jazmin says

    October 29, 2020 at 7:39 pm

    gracias, voy a probar <3

    • Catalina says

      November 9, 2020 at 2:12 pm

      con mucho gusto! 🙂

  3. Pamela says

    October 26, 2020 at 6:11 pm

    For those of you struggling with the download, I did, too, at first. Click on the download button and it will open the template. Then right-click and choose save as. It will pop up the save option and should autofill the name and file type. It should then show the download at the bottom of your screen. If you click that, it will open the template in a new tab. But if you go to design space and click on upload, you will see it as an option. Upload as normal.

  4. Tracy L Staadt says

    October 22, 2020 at 1:30 am

    all the download button does is open a picture of the bows not an SVG. i think your links are broken

    • Catalina says

      October 22, 2020 at 9:24 am

      They do work. The file that opens is an SVG file. Depending on the settings of your browser you will trigger the download or not.

      Links are not broken, I’ve verified this info over and over.

      If you click on “download” and a new window opens, right-click on it and click on “save image as.” It will look like a web file, but that’s how SVG files are saved.

      This needs to be done from a laptop, not a phone (I am trying to find a way to do it from a smartphone).

  5. Randi says

    October 9, 2020 at 2:04 am

    Hi,
    I have tried downloading the free templates from my laptop and iPad. I can’t get the downloads to work on either device. What should I do?

    Blessings,
    Randi

    • Catalina says

      October 21, 2020 at 3:51 pm

      The bows should download right away from a laptop. Check out your downloads folder, the file should look like a web file.

  6. Micah says

    October 5, 2020 at 12:05 am

    Hi! I am trying to download the SVG but they are not working. I even tried to look in the library. I am on a laptop. I hope you see this!

    • Catalina says

      October 19, 2020 at 6:18 pm

      The file should download to your PC. It looks like a web file, but that’s how SVG files look like.

  7. Alysha says

    September 17, 2020 at 4:31 pm

    hi i have not recieved in my email i have searched my whole email account in all folders and it is not in there anywhere

    • Catalina says

      September 21, 2020 at 5:26 pm

      The bows are there to download from the article itself. Are you talking about the subscription?

  8. Tanesha says

    September 11, 2020 at 10:32 pm

    I’m having a hard time downloading these.. can I get some guidance?

    • Catalina says

      September 16, 2020 at 9:26 pm

      Make sure you are from a laptop and click on the download button. It should download automatically.

  9. Rachel Brandreth says

    August 28, 2020 at 1:06 am

    How do you assemble the reindeer bow?

    • Catalina says

      September 2, 2020 at 5:46 pm

      There’s a little pic on this article that shows the final look of how the bow looks when assembled.

  10. Waleska Cortijo says

    August 26, 2020 at 8:37 pm

    Hi my name is Waleska. i want to know if you have any halloween svg for bows.

    • Catalina says

      September 2, 2020 at 5:41 pm

      There’s the little pumpkin one, but I don’t really have for that particular date!

  11. kayla says

    August 24, 2020 at 12:21 am

    I’m having issues getting the SVG’s onto my computer to work on design space! am I doing something wrong??

    • Catalina says

      August 26, 2020 at 5:04 pm

      Just make sure you’re clicking on the “download” button. Thye should download to your PC.

  12. Ashley Roberts says

    August 20, 2020 at 1:17 am

    I love these, however, I am having a tough time with the 4 corners bow. When I fold over the portion that is to be folded I see a lot of the back side of the bow. Could you advise please? Thank you! 🙂

    • Catalina says

      August 26, 2020 at 4:51 pm

      It’s really like a puzzle and hard to explain. I do have a little pic of them in this article. They are the white and navy blue ones next to the swan bow. I hope this helps 🙂

      • Shelby says

        October 22, 2020 at 9:16 pm

        The little picture of the 4 corner bow does NOT help whatsoever. I thought this was supposed to be a tutorial for all of the bows?!

        • Catalina says

          October 23, 2020 at 4:29 pm

          It’s like a little puzzle to put together. I think this tutorial is quite complete, I did the tutorial for the hardest one, and the fact you have 18 bows to choose from and play with makes it the best tutorial you’ll ever find. I will see if I have a chance to add a little step by step at some point (currently 8 months pregnant).

          There’s a picture of it too, next to the swan bow at the bottom.

    • Maria Hughes says

      October 5, 2020 at 5:06 pm

      I am having the exact problem and for the life of me, I can’t figure it out!

      • Catalina says

        October 19, 2020 at 6:35 pm

        I don’t know why 🙁 The files should download once you click on the button the file looks like a web one, but that’s how SVG files work.

  13. Marlene Escobar says

    August 10, 2020 at 4:05 am

    Catalina gracias por compartir tanta belleza de lazos y muy creativos. Dios te bendiga me encantan todos es difícil decidir mi favorita. Acabo de seguirte en tu blog y me gusta mucho. Te agradezco que compartas los archivos para cricut es difícil encontrar gratuitos y que gusten tanto.
    Saludos desde Costa Rica

    • Catalina says

      August 11, 2020 at 6:15 pm

      Con mucho gusto! Me alegra mucho que te gusten, ya tienes uno favorito?

  14. Ki says

    July 7, 2020 at 11:39 pm

    I just started making bows for my granddaughters and they will love these! Thanks so,UCB for the files and great directions.

    • Catalina says

      July 15, 2020 at 6:31 pm

      You’re welcome. I am sure they will look adorable!

  15. Correna Pleau says

    July 3, 2020 at 6:22 pm

    Thank you, thank you, thank you! Where are you doing your mission work, and Praise the Lord for you and your family. You will be in my prayers

    • Catalina says

      July 14, 2020 at 4:40 pm

      You’re very welcome! Thank you for your prayers.

    • Kylie Lawson says

      August 3, 2020 at 7:55 am

      Thank You So Much for the Awesome Bow Cutting Patterns and Wonderful Tutorial on Making them I have just Bought My Cricut Maker and I am sooo Excited to also find your Website too!! It’s a Website I definitely will be Bookmarking and Coming back to often Cheers Kylie in Australia 😁💖

      • Catalina says

        August 3, 2020 at 5:16 pm

        This makes me so happy to hear! I hope your bows look adorable!

  16. Cheryl Kelly says

    June 10, 2020 at 5:42 pm

    I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE all these bows! I have 3 granddaughters who love them too! Thank you so much for providing these SVGs for us. I do have one question. The pattern with the pretty scalloped edges is a difficult one for me. Can you please send a picture of it completed? I can’t understand how to fold so the scalloped edges are on the outside.

    thank you again so very much!

    • Catalina says

      June 18, 2020 at 5:22 pm

      For the princess and winter bow? You need tulle so you can assemble with ease. You can see pictures of most bows at the end of the tutorial!

      • April says

        June 23, 2020 at 3:59 pm

        Hi, I just want to thank you for being so generous. Thank you so much for sharing all of these. I’m a new follower from the Philippines.

        • Catalina says

          June 29, 2020 at 6:59 pm

          You’re very welcome 🙂

  17. Carolyn Walter says

    May 9, 2020 at 3:45 pm

    Thank you so much for these patterns. I love them. After 4 grandsons, I have a granddaughter.

    • Catalina says

      May 28, 2020 at 7:18 pm

      So exciting! She’s going to look adorable with them!

  18. Tammy says

    April 28, 2020 at 7:19 pm

    Oh my GOODNESS! I just came across your page and I can’t stop reading your tutorials! They’re all tho ha I love to do and you have fantastic tips and tricks to accomplish them! Thank You!

    • Catalina says

      May 28, 2020 at 6:19 pm

      You’re welcome! I am glad I can help!

  19. Linda says

    April 24, 2020 at 7:32 pm

    Love, Love, Love these bows.

    • Catalina says

      April 28, 2020 at 2:19 pm

      I am glad you like them 🙂

Explore

Meet the Daydreamer behind it all!

Hi There! My name is Catalina.

I am a wife, mom of a very active boy, and follower of Jesus. I am here on a mission, where YOU are the most important part!

I am here to bring you and your family, friends, and everyone you know together through the immense power of creativity.

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