Headband Tutorial

I love making things for my girls to wear in their hair and this quick project is so fun and easy that I wanted to share with my own added notes on how to assemble. Try these with your kids too. This is the perfect little project where you can share in the fun and be done in 15 minutes. We've done our school colors here and have plans for some Christmas ones as well. What a great way to use up your scraps. Here's what you'll need

***click on any photo to see them enlarged***

*6 strips of fabric about 18-20" long by 1/2" wide, 3 for each band and you can mix up the colors how you like
*I rip mine along the grain to give it the shabby edges, this is just my preference* you can also just pull along the sides to fray the edges or just cut and leave them how they are
*Your sewing machine
*6 inch piece of elastic - I use 3/8" width

1. Cut your 6 pieces of fabric in whatever prints you plan to use


2. Layer them on top of each other and stitch together


3. You can place your pieces under anything heavy to hold in place or tape it down to your surface. I choose to put my needle in the "needle down" position to hold in place and turn the strips towards me to start braiding.



4. Braid the entire length. Try to keep the print side up when braiding so that you see the colors you want shown, not the reverse side of your print. You might want to play with it for a bit so you can see if you like a tighter or looser braid.



5. Stitch your ends together then repeat with the other strips of fabric. Trim off the excess fabric from each end.



6. I turned my 2 braided pieces at a slight angle to each other then straight stitched each side together.



7. Now stitch your elastic to each end of your headband that's forming. My measurements fit my daughters head (she has a big head :-), just cut your elastic longer or shorter as needed. Because these are braids, there is a bit of give through the braid. If you really like a neat finish, you can take some bias tape and wrap it around the exposed edges on either end covering the elastic and the end of the braid and stitch that down. It won't be seen but wanted to add that note if you like things nice and neat.




8. Voila, you are ready to wear it! Try these using ribbon or even bias tape for a faster project!