Burlap & Lace Chapel Pew Bows

Good morning!

I am so thankful for the extended weekend!  It was nice to focus on things I wanted to do.  I got up early and went for a run in the neighborhood, shopped for guestroom inspiration, and even experimented with removing the popcorn texture from a ceiling. 

Today I'm going to share with you a wedding decor project.   My friend who got married in December asked me to recreate these bows she found on pinterest.  They were not linked to a tutorial or Etsy store, so I had to come up with the process on my own.

Inspiration

They looked simple enough to me, just burlap & lace!

She was married in a quaint Kiawah chapel, so we only needed 7 bows to hang on the end of the chapel pews.

What you'll need:

burlap - 4 yards

lace - 12 yards

elastic

hot glue

Start by cutting your burlap:

7 strips that are 65 inches long by 7.5 inches wide

I made the burlap 2 inches wider than the lace.  So if you're lace is thinner, you can make the burlap thinner.

To keep the ends from fraying, fold over all the edges and sew a basic seam around the perimeter of the strip.

Pick off any of the burlap that is hanging loose.

Cut 7 strips of lace:

60 inches long and 5.5 inches wide

We choose a very wide lace, but I'm sure the bows would look great with something thinner.

Fold over the ends and iron flat.

Now position your lace on top of the burlap.  The lace is shorter than the burlap so there will be some exposed burlap on both ends, make sure its even.

Sew the lace on to the burlap.  

Now let's make a bow! 

I cheated and made a fake bow.  Because the burlap & lace are so wide, it was tough to tie a traditional bow and make it actually look good.

To make the fake bow:

fold the burlap/lace piece in half

from the folded seam measure down 12 inches, this is where you will sew across

Now you have a big loop.

Before we go further with the bow, you need to have a piece that will wrap around the center.

Cut a strip of burlap that is 6.5 inches by 3 inches.  Fold over the ends like you did the larger strip and add the lace. 

My lace is much smaller for this step because I RAN OUT OF LACE! 

Like Tim Gunn says, "Make it work".  So I did, I cut tiny pieces of lace from the little bit I had left, and some how I managed to have just enough.  

Once the center strip is ready, move back to the fake bow.

Hold your burlap/lace piece vertical with the seam part up top and the tails hanging below.  Fold the center of the loop straight down.  Now scrunch the middle section pretty tight and twist the bow to the front.  You want to tails to have lace and the bow to have lace.

Now wrap the center strip around the middle of your fake bow and secure with hot glue. 

Make sure you are not glueing the middle strip directly to the bow, it should be glued to itself.  This empty space is how you will be attaching the bows to the pews.

The chapel my friend was married in has strict rules on how decorations can be attached to the pews.  You have to use something that won't damage them.  I decided to make elastic straps.  You will feed the elastic strap through the gap that I just mentioned.

To make the strap:

Cut a piece of burlap 33 inches long by 3.5 wide

Fold over the exposed sides so you don't have fraying.

The burlap is too thick to sew and then flip inside out.  To make things easy, I just hot glued the burlap.  Make sure you do this as close to one edge as possible. you want to have enough space to feed the elatic through the burlap sleeve.

To feed the elastic through, I used a knitting needle.  I poked a hole through the elastic and then carefully fed it through.  Make sure you safety pin the other end to the burlap, otherwise you'll just pull it through.

Once the elastic is pulled through, safety pin the other end to the burlap.  Now feed the entire piece (elastic and burlap) through the gap between the bow.

Now sew the elastic together.  To hide the exposed burlap, tuck on end into the other and secure with hot glue.  Once everything is dry, you can slide that seam behind the center strap of the bow.

There you go, Burlap & Lace Chapel Bows!

These can easily be re-used for other parties or as house decorations.

Here's a picture from the wedding where you can see the pew bows.  I love how they compliment the chapel perfectly!  I only wish I had made the elastic strap shorter so they would hang tighter to the pew.  But that's what happens when you've never actually seen the chapel until the wedding day.  As long as the Bride & Groom liked them ;)