Handmade Playing Card Bow

I am having a bit of an outfit crisis at the moment. July is just around the corner and that means that the Oxfordshire Lolitas will be invading Alice Day once again. Despite Alice Day last year being my hosting debut, I had a great time (and hopefully the other attendees did too) and we even made it in to our local paper. In fact, our photo was used again this year to advertise this year's Alice Day and there are still pictures of us floating around on some of the Alice Day web pages.

The only problem is, for ages I couldn't think of anything to wear this year. Normally, I just go with the flow but with Alice Day, it is one of those events where you ideally want to be on theme. Only, I went and sold my Bodyline Alice Skirt! Whilst I don't regret selling it, it left me wondering what I should wear to Alice Day this year. I could have worn Wonder Cookie or even Starry Night Theatre, but I just wasn't "feeling it". Thankfully, I now have a basic outfit idea planned and now I am trying to build on that. It is not going to be OTT crazy, but at least I will be on theme!

I decided that I would try making some matching accessories for my outfit and this is where this bow comes in-

I have gone for an outfit based around playing cards and card suits. So I took a playing card and turned it in to a bow by folding it like a fan. I gathered the middle part and then fanned the card out to a basic bow shape. The middle looked a bit ugly, so I sewed a bell charm on to the middle. The bell looks loose in the photo, but it is in fact gently sewn on and hopefully it will stay in place. I deliberately chose the Joker card!

This is not an original idea. I actually saw something similar online last year, but there was no way I was going to buy one of those for a stupid amount when I could make one at home. The only thing is, it feels as though there is something missing on my bow. It looks very simple. I don't want the bow to look too over-done, but maybe there is something I can do to make it look a bit neater maybe? I thought about getting some thin ribbon and then tying a tiny bow around the middle. I wonder if that would work?

Hopefully I will be able to figure out a way to finish off this bow and also complete my outfit. Any suggestions about the bow would be greatly appreciated. It was just a very cheap and simple craft idea. The good thing is, if I need to make more, I only need a spare 5 minutes and I already have a supply of playing cards!