While finding ideas for the 4th of July for my Link Love posts, I came across a headband that really inspired me (see it here). I wanted something for my daughter’s hair to match her cute plaid dress for the 4th and this seemed like an easy headband to recreate. It only took about a half hour to make.
Here’s a quick tutorial. Make it in any color you want, it doesn’t have to be patriotic!
Making the felt flowers:
I started by tracing the lid of a baby food jar onto a piece of felt. This served as the largest circle on the bottom of the flower. I then cut two smaller circles (I just free-handed the shape) to layer on top. Using my pattern notcher (this is a tool I have from days of pattern-making in fashion school; you can buy them for pretty cheap on Amazon.com), I put notches in each layer of felt. Then I sewed a coordinating button on top of each, which held all three layers of felt together.
Making the headband:
To make the headband, I measured the size of my daughter’s head and then cut a rectangle out of jersey that was roughly an inch smaller than the measurement in length (knowing that it would stretch once I put it on her). For the jersey, I just used one of my husband’s old t-shirts (don’t throw these away, you never know when they might come in handy!). I think the width of the rectangle was about 4”, but you can adjust this based on how wide you want your headband (I wanted a 2” headband).
After I cut it, I folded it in half lengthwise and sewed a seam down the side. Then I turned it right side out and pressed it so that the seam ran down the middle of the headband (this way it would be hidden when she was wearing it. I then sewed the ends together to make it a circle.
I also created a little band in the same manner and looped it around the headband just right of center-front; this gave the headband a gathered look in the front (see bottom-left picture above).
Putting two and two together:
I placed the flowers where I wanted them on the headband and sewed tiny stitches through the bottom layer of each flower in three different spots to hold it in place.
That’s all there is to it! I love making flowers this way, the notches are so cute and simple. I am thinking of making more to put on barrettes as well.
And because I love my little bugger and can’t get over her cuteness, here she is in all her 4th of July glory:
