Thursday, June 20, 2013

Decorated headbands

A couple of days ago I was in a local gift store looking for a birthday gift for one of my cousin's daughters. I saw a really cute decorated headband and got excited because I know the birthday girl likes to wear headbands. (At least she did the last time I saw her. I hope it's still the case.) It was in the clearance section, so it was half-off the marked price. What a deal, right? Well, the marked price -- for the one headband -- was $12.95. Even with the discount, which brought it down to about $6.50, it was a bit more than I wanted to spend on a headband. I realized that it wasn't really that elaborate -- it was wrapped in ribbon, with small sequins along the whole headband and a larger flower on one side -- so I decided to take a stab at making some myself.

Since I already own gobs of ribbon and various floral embellishments, I just needed a base for the headbands. I walked across the street to Walgreens, picked up a pack of inexpensive headbands (I think I paid about $3.50 for a pack of seven headbands), took them home and got to work.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!® unless otherwise noted):
Ribbon: Fun House ribbon assortment (American Crafts), Riding Hood Red striped grosgrain, 1/4" white grosgrain, white baker's twine
Flowers: Flower Fusion Too, Accents & Elements Fleurettes, Mediu Heritage Sheer Blossoms and Leaves (Creative Impressions)
Buttons: Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons, Button Latte Designer Buttons
Adhesive: 1/4" Scor-Tape (Scor-Pal), hot glue gun (unknown)

What do you think? I will try to write a tutorial when I make the next headband, but I didn't have time with these two. Basically, I removed the fabric covering that came on the headbands (snipped one end and it slid right off) and adhered the decorative ribbon to the outside with 1/4" Scor-Tape. I also put Scor-Tape along the inside of the headband and pulled the edges of the ribbon under. The polka dot ribbon is about 7/8" wide, and that was easy to work with. The striped ribbon was about 5/8", and it was a little tricky to fold the sides under in some places. I adhered a solid color ribbon on the inside of the headband to make it look more finished. For my first headband, I used the Scor-Tape for this step. I think it will hold, but for the second one I switched to the hot glue gun just to make sure (although I do like that the Scor-Tape is always flat; I sometimes end up with hot glue "bumps" if I don't get something glued down fast enough). Then it's just a matter of adding the desired embellishments.

After a little trial and error, these headbands were pretty easy to make. And it's a good thing, too, because all the girls I've been making barrettes for are starting to outgrow them. Thanks for stopping by!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Oh my Goodness I need to make some of these :) This would be a great rainy day project! I have a bunch of old fashioned buttons that maybe I could use for the embellishments...