Fabric Headband Tutorial

Alright, are you all ready for the grand finale of the headband series?  This one is a good one!

First though, I have a confession to make.  I'm not a hair person.  I'm not really even a hat person.  Or a bow person.  Or a make-up person...and I really feel silly wearing things on my head.  

So I'm going to be totally honest.  I made these fabric headbands with the girls in mind.  I didn't really expect to wear them.  But as I working out a template, I made the first one too big--my size.  And then I tried it on, and I kind of loved it....especially the yellow one.  Even if I do probably look silly ;-)  I don't know why, but looking at these little guys just makes me happy.

Alright, so I'm going to give three templates as a part of this tutorial, which I've labeled as 1) Toddler 2) Child/ Small Adult and 3) Adult.  The toddler size is based off of my 2 year old, who has a big head.  (I mean it seriously.  We had to do an ultrasound on her head as baby just to make sure something wasn't wrong.)  So if your kid is more petite--mine is 95th percentile--you might want to make it a bit smaller ok?

My pretty average adult sized head fits both the 2) and 3) sizes.  You can download the template in my pattern shop. 

The templates are just for the fabric band--not the flowers--but you can see how to make some of these flowers here, and here.  I recommend adding the flowers last, after the headband is finished.  Attach any lace earlier though, before you attach the front headband piece to the back.

Alright, are you ready to get started? 

You can download my templates here.  

Cut out your pieces.  You'll need two pieces of fabric for the main piece, and two more for the strap (each a front and a back).

Sandwich the fabric pieces together (right sides facing each other).  Leaving the ends open, sew up the sides with a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  Your pieces should look like this:

Turn each piece so that it is right side out:

They should look like this:

Now you need to bring elastic through the smaller of the two pieces.  I do this by attaching my elastic to a safety pin and pulling it through the fabric tube.

Doesn't it make it easy?

Next I sewed the ends closed to secure the elastic to each side of the strap piece.

At this point, I decided it would look better if each of the pieces was neatly topstitched at the edges, so I went ahead and did that.

Here's what you should have.  Note that the ends of the main piece of the headband are still open.

I fold down these raw edges and place the elastic part of the headband in each of the edges.

Use a pin to pin into place if necessary, then sew shut.

Repeat for the other side and you'll have a finished headband!

Embellish as desired with felt flowers!  (You can find tutorials for the felt flowers that I attached in this post and this post).  I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!  Don't forget to follow Snugglebug University so you don't miss out on more great tutorials!