DIY kinda girl: Bandana Pinwheel Headband Tutorial

Here's my guest post from a few weeks ago over at Domestic Deadline for those of you who missed it!

I thought long and hard about what I wanted to share with you today, what would say Summer to me and to you...and it was a gradual chain of events that got me to this.

First, I promised my sister-in-law I'd make a couple headbands for her birthday present.

Second, my husband works with the youth in our church, and he came home from youth conference with a hot pink bandana. (He was the leader of the hot pink group. Isn't he lucky.)

Third, I was admiring the spunky look of pinwheels.

And then it all clicked.

So today, I have for you my new Bandana Pinwheel Headband.

You need:

One bandana

A contrasting solid fabric (I used a black broadcloth I had on hand)

A rigid headband (mine was metal)

Heat N' Bond Iron On Adhesive

An iron

A hot glue gun

Okay, first you'll want to cut a 2.5 inch by 7 inch rectangle out of the contrasting fabric and a slightly smaller rectangle out of the Heat N' Bond.

Next, place the Heat N' Bond on the wrong side (if there is a wrong side) of the contrasting fabric rectangle you just cut out, with the paper side up.

Iron over the Heat N' Bond, paying particular attention to the edges. The instructions say about 2 seconds per spot, but I found that wasn't enough. I spent probably 30 to 60 seconds running the iron all around the rectangle (just make sure you keep the iron moving).

Let that cool for a minute, then peel off the paper.

Place the contrasting fabric rectangle with the adhesive side down on the wrong side of the bandana, over the portion of the design you want to have on your pinwheels. Iron into place, making sure it fuses completely.

Let it cool, then cut out (1) 2 inch square, (2) 1.5 inches squares, and (1) 1 inch square. (Make sure you cut the squares out one right after the other, right next to each other, or you won't have enough fabric.)

Next, take each square, and lightly mark the exact center. Cut diagonally from each corner about two-thirds to three-fourths the way to that center mark.

Now fire up your glue gun. Take the largest square (2 inch), and lay it down with the contrasting fabric facing up. Put a small dot of hot glue in the center of the square,

then take a corner and fold it down, sticking the tip in the glue. You may have to press it down and hold while the glue firms up a bit, but don't burn yourself.

Next, put another little dot of glue right in the center on top of the corner you just folded down, and fold down the next corner.

Repeat for the next two corners, and you have your first pinwheel.

Repeat these steps for the smallest square (1 inch).

Take the two 1.5 inch squares, and instead of having the contrasting fabric facing up, have the bandana fabric facing up, and repeat the above steps to form the pinwheels.

Now that you have all four pinwheels, you can hot glue a button or bead in the center of each, to hide the hot glue and to look pretty! Now put the pinwheels aside.

Next, we're going to wrap the headband. Cut a couple half inch wide strips of fabric from the bandana. Put a little bit of glue on the end of the headband, and stick the end of one of the strips to it.

My bandana was polyester, and therefore a tiny bit sheer, so to avoid being able to see the hot glue through the fabric, I glued only on the inside of the headband.

Put some hot glue on, and wrap the fabric strip around, pulling it up diagonally, but making sure it still overlaps with the previous layer. Only put down about an inch of glue at a time, or it will harden before you are able to wrap the fabric around. Continue until you are about to run out of fabric, then trim off the end of the strip so it is on the inside of the headband,

then glue the next strip on over it, so the seam is hidden on the inside of the headband.

Continue wrapping until the headband is covered. Again, clip off the excess fabric so the end piece is on the inside of the headband where it won't show.

Time to glue on your pinwheels. First glue on the biggest pinwheel. I positioned mine like so:

Next, glue on the middle sized pinwheels, one on either side of the largest pinwheel. And finally, glue on the smallest pinwheel, next to the middle sized pinwheel on the top of the headband.