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.

And you're done!  You have a darling spunky summer accessory!

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Box Pleated Headband Tutorial

I've been on a headband kick lately.  I can tell you exactly why, in fact.  It's because I whacked off all my hair.  Now, the last time I chopped off all my hair, I was 12.

Look at that face.

Unfortunately, because of the beanpole-completely-flat figure that went along with that face (and I imagine the navy blue Taz t-shirt I was wearing didn't help), I was mistaken for a boy once.

It scarred me for life.

Which leads me to the headbands!  Now that my hair is short again, while I'm not afraid of being mistaken for a boy anymore, I AM afraid of not looking feminine.  So I've been fully decked out with headbands and earrings (and even make-up too!) every day since the great chopping.

So onto the tutorial!  I've been seeing a lot of ruffled and pleated headbands around, and I like them!  I thought I'd try something just a little different though, and use box pleats.  Kinda fun, right?

Okay, to make a box pleated headband, you will need:

A rigid headband (mine was metal)

Ribbon of your choice

Pins

Sewing machine

Hot glue gun

Beads or something like unto them for embellishment

Iron and ironing board (maybe)

1) Measure your headband.  (Mine was about 15 inches.)

Multiple that measurement by three.  Now cut that length in ribbon.  (Therefore, I cut 45 inches.)

2) Singe one edge of your ribbon

(sorry for the blur, that's what you get when you try to take a photo of something you're doing with the self-timer!).

3) Take the edge that you singed and fold it over about an inch, then fold that in half (so the top layer is about half an inch wide) forming an S of sorts.

Pin in place.

4) Measure in one inch from the end, and fold over, forming another pleat.

Pin into place.

5) Turn it over, and measure in a half inch from the end of the last pleat,

and fold over, forming another pleat.

Pin into place from the front.

6) Measure a half inch from the end of the closest pleat, and fold over to form the next pleat (as in step 4).

Pin into place.

7) Turn it over and repeat step 5.

8) Repeat step 6, and so on until you've reached the end of your ribbon.

Check to make sure the length is correct, and singe the other end of the ribbon.

9) Sew straight down the middle, removing the pins as you go.

Now is when you'd want to iron your pleats.  I forgot decided I didn't want them looking too starched and crisp, so I didn't.

10) Time for embellishment!  If you're going to sew one beads like I did,

then do it now.  If you're going to take a short cut and glue them on (whoever invented the hot glue gun is a genius), then do it after the next step.  It will be easier.

I added my beads right where the stitching and the box pleats intersect.

11) Glue it onto your headband.  Check again for fit before you start to glue, then only put about an inch of glue on at a time, otherwise it will harden before you can get your pleated ribbon properly situated on the headband.

And you're done!

See?  I don't look like a boy!

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Little girls' flower headbands

So I had a shower to attend on Friday.  My husband's cousin Kattie is pregnant with long awaited twin girls.  I'm not into the whole twins matching thing...so I opted for similar-but-different in the hair bows I made (because no little girl can have too many bows).

The first set:

Made of felt and foldover elastic.  I took this tutorial and adapted it.  Mostly made it smaller!  I used 3.5 inch squares instead of 7 inch squares.  I found it was too hard to fold the felt into fourths and cut it...so I just folded it in half and cut it (here's my template, if you want it).  Once each petal piece was sewn, I attached it all together on the headband with hot glue.

Second set:

I based these flowers on a tutorial for making paper flowers.  I used a salad plate to make the circle from which I cut the spiral...but that was a little big...I ended up cutting off quite a bit!  And just glued sparkly silver beads in the center (how I love my hot glue gun).

Third set:

I just kinda twisted and folded in my own way, but here is a good rolled rose tutorial (the actual tutorial is a PDF and I can't get the link to work...so just scroll down the page until you come across Free Projects on the right side bar).  Oh, and I was extra zealous on the felt backing for the burlap rose to make sure none of that itchy (but totally cool looking) burlap would touch the baby's head. Trimmed out a little bit of the center of each rose so I could sink the 8 mm brown pearl into it.  More hot glue.

Fourth set:

My favorite!  Braided roses made with two patterned calicos and one solid broadcloth each.  Cut (or tear) three strips of fabric (mine were 12 inches long and half an inch wide, which made about a rose about an inch and a quarter in diameter).  Either hot glue or sew together at one end.  Braid (how tightly you braid changes the look of the rose).  Sew or hot glue the ends together to hold braid.  Roll up, gluing as you go.  Finish by tucking the end of the braid on the bottom of the rose and gluing into place.  The end!

The leaves are also pretty easy.  Cut a 3 inch square of fabric.  Fold in half to make a rectangle, then take the top two corners of the rectangle and fold down into the center, forming a triangle (this puts all the unfinished edges together along the bottom).  Baste along the long bottom (unfinished) edge of the triangle.  Gather.  And there you go.

And now, back to sewing my daughter's new dress...we're getting our family pictures taken tomorrow, and I figured out what I wanted my son and husband to wear, but my little girl just didn't have anything that would suit me!  So I headed off to the fabric store...I'm almost done with the dress, then I'll just have to make the little bolero jacket (but I'm also going to attempt making my own bias tape...wish me luck!)