Free 3D bow SVG files

How a round becomes a bow

Most of these bows are made from rounds: a hub with arms all the way round it. Bend an arm up and over, without creasing it, and glue its tip on the hub. That is one loop. The hub is a polygon with one side for each arm, and each arm ends in a triangle the size of one slice of that polygon, so the tips lie side by side on the hub like slices of a cake instead of piling up in the middle. Do every arm, then glue a smaller round on top, turned so that its loops sit over the gaps, and finish with the ring or the button.

A loop stands up from the hub and reaches out by no more than half its own length, so a bow comes out at most half as wide as the flat round it was cut from. The notes give the most a bow can measure, with every loop pressed flat; left round, as they should be, the loops reach a little less.

Paper, sizes and glue

The files are 100 mm on their longer side, so scale them up before cutting. The pom-pom, cut 225 mm wide, makes a bow up to 63 mm across from a sheet 225 by 175 mm, which fits A4 or Letter paper. For a bigger bow scale the whole file: on a 12 inch mat it can be cut 131 percent of that size.

Loops need paper that bends without cracking: 120 to 180 gsm paper, thin card or wrapping paper backed with plain paper. Card over 220 gsm makes stiff loops that may spring off the glue. Double-sided paper shows its second colour inside every loop. Use a quick tacky glue or a glue dot under each tip and hold it for a few seconds. Every size here is worked out from the drawing, not from a test cut, so try one in scrap paper first.

How to open the files

• Cricut Design Space: choose Upload, pick the SVG, and add it to the canvas. Set the width you want; the shape is already welded.
• Silhouette Studio: Designer Edition and above open the SVG. The free Basic Edition does not, so open the DXF instead.
• LightBurn, xTool Creative Space and Glowforge: import the SVG, then set the layer to cut, score or engrave.
• Inkscape, Illustrator and Affinity: open the SVG. It is a plain filled path, so you can recolour it, add a stroke or combine it with your own work.
• Printing or sublimation: use the PNG, which has a transparent background.

Each design page lists the file’s narrowest part at seven sizes, so you can tell whether it will survive at the size you plan to cut.

Questions