August 22, 2012

i whip my hair back and forth

I was at my most favorite patchwork shop on Earth, Sewn Studio in Cincinnati, a while back when some super pretty ribbon caught my eye! 
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I then looked at Julie, the owner of Sewn, and she was wearing some of said ribbon as a headband! I knew I needed some of these guys for my mane so Julie quickly showed me how to whip some up on my own. She also gave me free reign to share the tutorial with y'all too. Here we go, folks! :)

Needed materials for one headband:

Though I got my ribbon at Sewn (and you should too if you're in the area), there are a lot of really pretty options that you can buy online too! Anna Maria Horner has some ridiculously pretty ribbon out now; one of my favorites is Early Risers-
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You can buy her ribbon online here.

On Etsy, The Raw Supply Co has some GORGEOUS ribbon! My favorite of theirs are these guys-
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You can buy them here.

On to the tutorial! Hold onto your seat kids, cuz this is one of the most simple things you'll ever make. If you're a beginner sewer, this will be a great project for you and something you can show off around town too!

Cut the velvet and decorative ribbon to 22" inches in length. This length is for an adult size head, you will have to modify to fit a child's head. Put the velvet and ribbon right sides together and sandwich the elastic in between.

Let about an inch of the elastic stick out- this will not be seen when finished.

Sew along the end of the ribbon, where the elastic is sticking out. After sewing, flip the velvet and ribbon over so that the right sides are showing and 5" of elastic is sticking out from the sewn, finished edge.

Then sew the sides together, using a teeny tiny seam allowance. I used a very basic stitch on this headband but next time I'll use a decorative one to snazz it up a bit.

After the sides are sewn, place the end of the elastic into the open end of the headband (about an inch should be inside the headband, as you did on the opposite end) and stitch closed.

The result?


A super cute, handmade headband! These look cute while wearing your hair in a ponytail or down and the velvet is great for keeping the headband in place and not slipping all over the place like some I've bought have done.

Here's me wearing the one above while impersonating my friend's son-

And here's a slightly more normal picture of me and my beautiful niece, Laura. I'm wearing another headband that I made in this picture, using the same method as above.

I love these headbands! Depending on the fabric you use, they can be really versitile. I recently bought some cute fabric with basketballs on them and am going to make some headbands for my nieces to wear to keep their hair out of their faces during their games.

If you make one of these, let me know! I'd love to see a picture. :)

xo, Kara

3 comments:

  1. Love it!! The green one is my fave.

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  2. I read: "I recently bought some cute fabric with basketballs on them..." and I thought to myself "what are wasketballs???" Then I had an 'AH HA' moment. It was a thing of beauty. -_- I'm making one tonight. <3 hairbands.

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  3. So cute and it looks easy even for me. I loved the two photographs at the end.

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