The best bow makers for wreaths, and why the board width is the only figure that matters

How we ranked these

Published board width first, because it is the one figure that changes what the tool can make, and because only two of these six publish it. Then maximum bow span, which follows from it. Then kit contents, because a bow maker without twist ties is a tool you cannot finish a bow with. Then spec completeness, which in this field is weak.

We have not used any of these. Everything in the table is a figure a listing prints, and the wreath-matching arithmetic is ours. Live prices under every buy button are refreshed daily and stamped with the date they were read.

Board width against wreath diameter

A pegged bow maker works by looping ribbon around pegs set at a distance from each other. The widest peg spacing on the board is the widest loop you can form, and twice that loop is roughly the span of the finished bow. That makes the board width the ceiling on the whole output.

Wreath diameters, and how to measure the door they go on, are on wreath size guide. If the bow is going on a lamp post, a mailbox or a column rather than a wreath, those are bigger spans again — the pages are lamp post Christmas decorations and wrapping trees and columns.

Three mechanisms, three different bows

The listings are clear about mechanism even when they are vague about everything else, and the three families make genuinely different bows.

The ribbon decides more than the tool does

A bow maker forms the loops. Whether the finished bow holds its shape through a season on a door is a ribbon question, and a wired edge is the answer.

Wired ribbon holds whatever curve you set; unwired ribbon relaxes into a flat strap within days, and no tool on this page changes that. Ribbon width matters too: a 2.5 in ribbon on a 20 in board makes a bow of real presence, and a 1.5 in ribbon on the same board makes a spindly one. The width, total yardage and length-per-roll figures are on Christmas ribbon, ranked on the number that decides whether a run joins, and the method — how much ribbon each bow size takes, the loop sequence, and how to revive a bow that has gone flat — is on how to make a wreath bow.

Who a bow maker is actually for

Worth being honest about. If you make one bow a year, for one wreath, a shop-bought bow or a hand-tied one is fine and the tool is an indulgence.

A bow maker earns its place when you need SEVERAL bows that match: a pair of wreaths on a double door, a run of bows down a stair rail, six on a garland, a bow on each of four lamp posts. Matching is exactly what hand-tying is worst at — the second bow is never quite the first — and a pegged board is a jig, so every bow off it is the same. The same logic applies to the bow on each of the door swags and to staircase decorating, where the bows are a repeated element rather than a single focal point.

It is also, straightforwardly, the best gift on this page for somebody who already decorates: it is the tool they would not buy for themselves and would use every year. Pair it with a roll of wired ribbon.

So which one

For a front door, a lamp post or anything over about 24 inches, the Ackitry 20 inch board — the widest published width here. For indoor wreaths, garlands and stair rails, the 16 inch board. For a first tool that arrives complete, the extended board with its ties and instructions. For dense tree bows, package bows and favors, the Bowdabra. For bows with real depth if you make them often, the Deluxe EZ BowMaker. And if the 4-in-1 looks like the most tool for the money, remember that none of its four sizes is published.