DIY Upcycled Knotted Jersey Headband

As promised, I'm here to share a quick and easy project for all of you who want to give sewing knits a try. This headband takes you just half an hour (tops) to make and makes the perfect project to practice those knit stitches on. Try it once and before you know it you'll have a stack of pretty headbands. It's addictive!

You can play with different types of knits and different colors and patterns to mix up your own variation of it. I tried three different styles, and love them all. I might even make a few more - one for every outfit, haha. And these are not just for adults. I tried one of mine on my 4-year-old cousin, and she looked so adorable. (Granted, she hates having anything stuck on her head, but she looked dang cute for those 30 seconds).

 What you will need for this project:

1) A little bit of jersey fabric (or lace) - I cut my material from old t-shirts, lace tops and scraps of left-over fabric.

2) Basic sewing equipment (machine, needle and thread, pins, scissors, iron and ironing board)

4) Cardboard for the template

5) Ruler and pencil

STEP 1

First, you need to make 2 templates. One for cutting out the pieces, and the other one for ironing. You can see the measurements of the headband template on the upper picture. It includes 1cm wide seam allowances, but if you have a bigger than average head (I measured my head the way I would wear the headband and got 55.5cm), you might add a couple of cm to the length of the piece.

NOTE! I've had a reader point out that their headband came out too short. This might be due to different stretch of the fabric, or partly because of wider seam allowances or just a slightly bigger head. For this reason, I suggest measuring your head before making the pattern. Given that the fabric has good stretch, the headband should be about 10cm longer than your head circumference. Also, don't be afraid to stretch the headband when knotting it. I stretched mine quite strongly to make the knot comfortably. I'll try and add a video of that soon!

The ironing template is slightly smalles and will come in very handy later in the tutorial. The ironing template needs to be cut from cardboard. 

STEP 2

Cut 4 pieces of fabric using the headband template. Sew 2 of them together (right sides facing) and press the center seam allowances on both other pieces.

STEP 3

Place the two single pieces on top of the sewed piece right sides together and pin them in place. Be sure to pin to match the centers.

I don't know if you noticed, but I pinned the pink piece to the pink and white to white on the above photo, but I had to do it over, because I wanted to be like a chess board (white on pink, and pink on white). 

STEP 4

Sew the pieces together with a 1cm seam allowance. I used a lightning bolt stitch here, but you could use any of the three stitches I showed in this post. 

STEP 5

Cut the seam allowance to just a few millimeters to reduce bulkiness, and give the seams a good press. 

STEP 6

Turn the headband inside out. 

STEP 7

Use the ironing template to press and form the headband. Just shove the cardboard template into on half of the headband and give that side a good press. Then remove and repeat with the other side. This makes getting a good shape very easy. 

STEP 8

Lastly, hand-sew the center opening shut. 

Now, wasn't that easy? But if you have any questions, you can always just ask in the comments, and I'll do my best to clarify.

A little-known fact about me is that I have a very oddly shaped head. It's narrow, which makes finding a headbands that fit pretty hard. Also, most fabric headbands (and scarves for that matter) won't stay on for more than 2 minutes. But, I actually managed to wear this one for a whole day. Wow! So, I made myself three (lol). 

Happy sewing!

xo. Hanna