Fabric Headband

I was in Target a few weeks ago, eying their cute selection of fabric headbands. I really wanted one…until I checked the price tag. $6 Target? Really? I knew I could buy the supplies and it would average out to about $0.75 each. So I did. And here are the instructions to show you. (Actually I used leftover fat quarter fabric from my camera strap cover tutorial, so there. It cost me about $0.10 after buying $1.29 package of elastic since I can get about 12 headbands out of one yard of elastic).

I’ve seen instructions for these where you can make them reversible by using different fabrics on each side, but I don’t trust my sewing skills to get each side sewn exactly right (so that the opposite side fabric isn’t showing through on the edges). However, feel free to experiment.

Fabric Headband

1) Cut two rectangle strips of fabric 19″ x 3″.

2) Using a rotary cutter (or fabric shears if you don’t have one), cut from the center of each of the strips tapering in 1/2″ toward the end on each long side, so that the middle is the widest part (3″), and the ends are the narrowest (1.5 – 2″). Press the short ends over 1/4″ (you’ll see below), and sew long ends together, with right sides touching. It helps to pin the fabric every few inches to hold it together correctly. (Note how my sloppy cutting left one piece larger than the other. See – you can be an inept sewer and still make this work).

3) Trim any excess fabric you may have outside of the sewn line. Turn fabric so that the right sides are now facing out (you can use a safety pin to help pull one end through the other if you have trouble) and then press seams down.