A customer brought back a bow last year, not one of mine, and asked if I could fix it. The loops had gone soft and floppy, the centre knot was a strip of ribbon held on with a bead of hot glue, and the clip had pulled away from the fabric completely. I could see exactly where it had been made in a hurry. It taught me more about what to look for than any tutorial has.
So here is what I check when I make a bow, and what you can check in about thirty seconds before you buy one.
Turn it over and look at the back
The back of a bow tells you everything. You want to see stitching, not a dried puddle of glue. On my bows the clip is sewn through the fabric base with a doubled thread, which means it can take being tugged out of thick hair without peeling off. Glue alone goes brittle in Visakhapatnam humidity. I learned that the hard way in my first summer of sewing.
Check the edges
Raw edges fray after three washes. Every seam on my bows is turned in and closed, so there is no cut edge exposed anywhere. Run your thumb along the outline of the loops. If it feels like a hem rather than a cut, it will last.
Squeeze the loops
A good bow has something inside it. I fuse a light interfacing to the fabric before I cut, which is the difference between a loop that stands up and a loop that collapses into a limp knot by lunchtime. Press a loop between two fingers. It should spring back rather than stay creased.
Watch how the pattern sits
On printed or embroidered fabric, look at where the motif lands. On the Phulkari Bow I cut each piece by eye so the embroidery reads properly across both loops, which is why no two are identical and why a bolt of it makes fewer bows than you would expect. When fabric is cut carelessly, the print gets chopped through the middle and the bow looks off balance even if you cannot say why.
Ask about batch size
If a shop can tell you how many they made, that is a good sign. I cut in batches of eight to fifteen depending on the fabric, and when a print runs out it is genuinely gone.
Celebration Hair Accessory Set is the one I reach for most.
For scrunchies, check the elastic
Pull it gently. A proper scrunchie uses knitted elastic at least six millimetres wide, stitched closed and enclosed in the fabric channel so it never touches your hair. Thin cord elastic loses its stretch in weeks. The Festive Red Green Scrunchie has a generous length of it inside, which is why it grips a thick plait without leaving a dent.
Have a look through what is in stock this week and turn a few pieces over in your hands.