Tutorial: Attaching Bows to Shirts

There are a number of ways to attach bows to shirts. Today, I’m going to show you my favorite technique. Most of my designs involving bows include some kind of in-the-hoop bow tack. Generally, you will use that tack down stitch right in the middle of the bow like shown in the image above. But I prefer to use a different technique.

I like to use the button stitch (NOT to be confused with the buttonhole stitch) on my sewing machine. I’ve tried to simulate this for the embroidery machine in a few of my designs but it just isn’t quite as precise. I also like to iron my design and iron the comfort cover on the back before I attach the bows. It’s really difficult to press the design well and get the comfort cover to fuse when ironing around the bows.

Here is a quick tutorial of my favorite way to attach the bows. For a larger view, click on the image below:

*Alternate Step 4 -If you do not have a button stitch on your machine, you can follow these steps to get the same results. 1. Disengage the lower feed dogs. You do not want to feed your fabric through the machine. It needs to remain still. 2. Choose the zig zag stitch. 3. Set stitch length to 0 and stitch width to its widest setting.