Hairband Tutorial

I know that I'm only a couple of weeks into the school hols, so it's not really time to talk about back to school in any way, but you might want to make this simple project with your small people over the summer, as it's really, really easy!

You will need two pieces of fabric (one 17" x 4", one 5 1/2" x 2 1/2" and a piece of elastic 4" long)

1) Fold each piece of fabric in half (right sides together and sew along the long side of each (I used a generous 1/4" seam).

2) Turn them out to make two tubes.

3) Iron them flat with the seam in the middle of the bottom flat side.

4) Turn the ends of the long tube inside (about 1/4") and iron them in ready for sewing.

 5) Use a bodkin or large safety pin to hold one end of the elastic and thread it through the short tube just far enough that the end of the elastic and the end of the fabric tube line up.  Sew over this end several times with the sewing machine to hold the elastic and fabric securely.

6) Pull the elastic through the tube and sew the other ends in the same way - the extra fabric will crinkle up around it - that's what you want!

7) Now put each end of the little elastic-y crinkle tube into the folded end of the large fabric tube.  You should aim to line up the middle seams, and sew them into place with several passes of sewing again - your sewing should go from edge to edge of the large tube but you might want to do a couple of extra passes over the middle section with the little tube end.

 8) Ta-da!  You have finished your hairband - now find a young model to show you how great it looks!

I cut up a school dress that was past it's best, which had a high polyester content, which is why this band doesn't look as flat as the others that we've made. On the plus side it will match school uniform when my DD's return to school!

Of course, you don't have to make it in school colours, and if you want to make it really simple for small people to make, you don't even have to make the small covering tube for the back, like this one that DD2 made.

Alternatively you can get really fancy with two types of fabric and pleats into the smaller tube (so a slightly different construction, but once you've made a basic one I'm sure that you can work that out!).


I hope that you have fun.  The measurements given are for  primary school girls' heads.  If you want a longer band for yourself or an older girl then just adjust the longer tube - you shouldn't need it to be more than about 20" I think, but you can always measure to check before you make it.

I like the idea of embellishing them - I'm thinking jazzy flowers, stuffed ladybirds, perhaps a felt parrot - but the girls have come across my wilder ideas before and have decided to keep the bands plain at the moment.......