My Heavenly Headbands

See, I told you I could find something else to sew other than tote bags!  I decided to make headbands simply because I saw them pinterest and they looked like a great gift to make for friends.  I made some car seat covers for some lady friends of my mine who had kids recently.  Well, unfortunately, one of the girls is moving away.  I know this will be sad for them both to leave each other, so I wanted to make something for them to remind them of their friendship.  I made them these fabric headbands out of the remaining fabric from their car seat covers.  Awh, I love them both so much and I hope these remind them of all their good times.

I choose the pattern and tutorial at Me and My DYI for Reversible Headbands.  One of the main factors for why I choose this one is because she used the kind of elastic I had (non-roll).  Originally I was thinking of making the Craft Snob’s DIY Headband because it involved fewer steps, but it uses fold over elastic – I’m not familiar with that and don't have any.  I probably could have used non-roll elastic, but… whatevs.  ANYWAYS, I like ones I made better anyways, they are cuter.

So the first one I made I followed Debbie’s instructions at Me and My DYI exactly. I love her instructions and details, but oi, she used one of those turn-inside-out-tools, and I haven’t had luck using my mom’s and I don’t have one so….. I felt that anxiety bubble up because I hate turning pieces inside out, but actually it wasn't that hard. I created my own concoction to pull the elastic through the strap. It worked out just fine. You can follow her instructions and I’m sure they’ll turn out as perfect as her. That being said, I (of course) ended up altering her pattern. After sewing the first one I felt like it could use a bit of tweaking.

Okay, so below is what I had an issue with, the bands almost seemed too big. The top of the band like lifted off the head a little. You can see that I wanted it to have a pleat in it, so that it folded over. So I altered the pattern a smidgen.

As it turns out my elastic was ¾” and Debbie’s was a ½” so I need to change the pattern a bit anyways. Below you can see her original pattern below (folded in half) and my altered pattern above showing how I was accommodating the larger elastic size. The first one I made it was hard to pull the elastic through and because it was such a tight fit it kind of twisted around a bit.  BUT as you can see in the bottom picture, the fold over came out amaz.

Anyways, they turned out so great. I did a couple where I did reversed for the two ladies to each have a fabric from each other’s car seat covers. That being said, I’m not sure if it’s worth the extra work to make them reversible…. Cute, but, meh.

If you are reading this now I am probably at my sewing machine furiously making as many as I can for all the girls in my life. I hope these inspire you to make your own. Oh, here are some silly pics of me demo-ing these headbands for my friends.

What I learned before all the blood got stuck in my head from an overly tight headband:

• Check yourself before sew yoself.  A couple of times I sewed the strap on the back twisted.  It’s hard for me to devote my attention 100% to sewing.  I either have the TV on in the background or chicken on the grill or something else dragging me away from the sewing machine.
• A couple of times I just used my rotary cutter free-hand and the cuts which came out weird which meant that the final sewing came out weird too.  My mom always hounds on me to cut things out straight and correctly.  But my thing is that I have been able to convince myself that I can correct wonky cutouts by sewing them together straight…. I’m not sure I’m convinced anymore.
• Can boys wear headbands, cause I look hawt. Jk, I’m not wearing them.  Maybe I’ll keep one for when I am washing my face. :)
• GREAT project to get rid of your remnants and scraps.