Help troubleshooting bowline knots

The bowline is an interesting example of a knot which fails if dressed wrongly - even if it has been tied correctly.

If you tighten a bowline by pulling on the working end, or by pulling the loop apart, it can invert to a running noose.

Tighten it by pulling the standing end to avoid this.

Here is a loose bowline:

Pulling the working end (and the right-hand side of the loop) starts to invert the knot:

Continuing to pull brings a bight of the standing end through the knot, forming a noose:

Tightening by pulling on the standing end (and either/both sides of the loop) gives a properly dressed bowline:

Here are four variations on the bowline, in words and graphics. Note that all four of them are here left not fully dressed (not tightened).

In each case, the standing part should be pulled, or at least held firm, to tighten the knot.

If, instead, you pull on the working end without holding the standing part -- and this seems to be your problem -- the knot can capsize into a noose.

Also note that, in each case, the initial loop and the desired bowline loop must both go in the same direction. The four knots all have loops going counter-clockwise from the standing part. (If you prefer the initial loop to go clockwise, also make the desired bowline loop go clockwise.)

The first two both start with a loop with the working part over the standing part.

The working end must come up through the loop,

go under (or behind) the standing part, then back down through the loop.

I call this a "British" bowline, where the tail ends "inside" the resulting loop.

A variation, from the same beginning loop, has the working end come up through the loop and around the standing part on the opposite side before going back down through the loop.

I call this a "Dutch" bowline, where the tail ends "outside" the resulting loop.

The second two bowlines both start with a loop with the working part under the standing part and simply result in "upside-down" bowlines.

The working end must go down through the loop,

go over (or in front of) the standing part, then back up through the loop.

Again this "British" bowline has its tail "inside" the resulting loop.

The "Dutch" variation, from the same beginning loop, has the working end go down through the loop and behind the standing part on the opposite side, come across the front of the standing part, before coming back up through the loop.

Again the tail ends "outside" the resulting loop.

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Addendum

_{If your initial loop is clockwise, so too should be the main loop.}

_{If your initial and main loops go in different directions, you still get a bowline if you're careful, but the result will be rather twisted. The final images show a "twisted bowline": a clockwise initial loop with a counter-clockwise main loop that has to twist back on itself!}