Make It Like Me Monday

Ha! Monday, and here's the tutorial for this week. (For once I made it on Monday instead of Tuesday!)

Make a two-colored headband (turban style)

Start with 2 pieces of contrasting fleece 22" long (or the circumference of your head) x 4".

Lay one down one way and the other crossing a little to the left of midpoint, perpendicular to the first, so it forms a cross. Then fold the first one over the second one.

Next fold the second strip over the first strip...

...and twist so that they connect like this:

Then stack all four ends together and pin. Sew all four layers, clip threads, and turn right side out. Here you see the seam from the inside.

And—voila! You've made another variation on my updated vintage headband!

Fix a Bad Hair Day in 5 minutes!

We all have 'em... days when our hair does everything except what it's supposed to do. Today was one of those for me, and after denial (mine—my hair just laughed at me), a period of mourning, and feeling grief for a life that included bad hair days, I decided to fix the problem.

Now, I used fleece, 'cause it's still cold here—even though I have no intentions of going outside where the cold actually is—but you can use any stretchy material. I've made some from old tee shirts, too.

I was making several at once, so my fabric is doubled.

First things first. Lay your fabric out so that the stretch goes long ways and lay your see-through 4" wide ruler on top. This is one of the things I really like about fleece; you don't have to worry about grain, just stretch.

Oops. I forgot the first first thing. Measure your head, and add 1/2" an inch. (Actually, I just kind of lay the fabric on my head and see if it stretches all the way around my head.)

So now you have a nice, even swatch of cloth 4" wide and about 22" long (your head might have more brains in it than mine does, necessitating a bigger headband). Take it to your sewing machine and sew the short ends together, using about a 1/4" seam. (It is very forgiving here, thanks to the stretch.)

Now, if your seam is larger than 1/4", trim it down to 1/4".

Cut a piece of the same fabric (or a coordinating one might look cute) to a rectangle 2" x 3". Wrap that piece of fabric around the headband, gathering the headband and hiding the seam. You can sew it together by hand here if you want; I headed back to the sewing machine. Pulling the fabric so that it holds the gathers in the headband, sew the ends together. Turn just that piece inside out, so the seam is on the inside, and you're done!

5 minutes, and you look like you stepped out of a vintage catalog!

I added a flower topped by buttons in graduated sizes to give this one more character.