Warm Ears and Perfect Hair With This Beautiful Headband

Hey everybody,

This ist my first sewing-instructable, so I'm quite excited what you think of my new headband. I've already made four headbands before and I have to say, I like this one most! I'm from Germany, so please forgive me any mistakes. The translator I use isn't always sure, which word is the right one for the typical sewing things. So I have to pick the one which sounds or looks the best.

The idea for sewing a headband popped up because I had already made bonnets before. I came to a point, where I didn't feel like doing bonnets anymore, so I startet making headbands. Making a headband is much easier and especially faster. For me it's the perfect mate for cold days.

Step 1: Get Your Fabric, Cut Your Fabric

You'll need:

1. Your beloved Sewing Machine

2. Fabric (look below for details)

3. Cutter & Cutting Mat or Scissors

4. Tape Measure or Ruler

5. Pins

6. Chalk or Pen

7. Thread

8. Your favorite Music to get in the right Mood

I present you my first struggle with the translator. The fabric you need ist called "cuff fabric" (not sure, if this word exists). It's a fabric, you usually use to make cuffs out of. It is very stretchy, while still being robust. Choose your favorite color (I took yellow) and another color which is a good match with high contrast (grey).

Cutting the fabric for the headband is very easy, so I'll just tell you the dimensions of both parts:

Grey one: 50 cm x 14,5 cm (19,7" x 5,7" for my american friends)

Yellow one: 50 cm x 7,5 cm (19,7" x 3")

Step 2: Get Closer With Your Sewing Mashine

In the picture you can have a look on my lovely sewing machine. We had our fights but we managed to get along. Best thing to do for making her more tolerable was working with good sewing thread. I highly recommend this. Sewing is so much more fun with high quality sewing thread.

First of all you have to cast the fabrics. The fabrics are very elastic so be sure not to sew too close at the end of the fabric.

Step 3: Make Use of the Elastic Stitch

Now fix the long sides of both fabrics with pins together. Having done that, sew it with an elastic stitch. Make sure to sew with the inside out of fabrics.

Do the same thing with the other long side.

Step 4: Performance of the Arm

Now it's time for the tricky part. Put your arm in one hole of the tube-like construction you just sewed until your hand reaches light again. This hand takes the end of the hole and pulls half of it on the inside. Both sewed ends of the fabric should be at one end of the tube now. If you want a cover for your umbrella with a hole on the top, your project is finished now. Others, who have the courage to do the last steps, please read further.

Fix the matching parts with pins together. Sew around with an elastic stitch. But be careful! It's very important to leave approximately 5 cm (2 ") open!

Step 5: Turning the Inside Out

It's time for my favourite step, because now you can finally see, how the result is going to look like. So this step is connected with a lot of tension. Turn the inside out by pulling everything through the hole, that you just left open.

Now the only hole you should see is the one, you have pulled it through.

Step 6: The Magical Invisible Stitch

This little hole needs to be sewed, too.

I prefer to sew it by hand with a so called "mattress stitch". I am so sure, that this is a typical german term. In other words it's a kind of stich, which you shouldn't see afterwards.

Herefore press the open parts together and form them, as if they would have been already sewed. The trick is to make the new stitch on the direct oppostite side from where the thread came out. You only put the top of the needle in the opposite side and let it come out a few millimetres beside it. Please take a look at the pictures to get a better understanding of it.

You can see the result in the last picture. If I did it right you actually should see nothing at all.