Beautiful adjustable hair bands - A Tutorial

So Christmas is nearly here and as well as the frantic shopping and cooking most of us will also be turning our thoughts to what to wear! Of course if you have little princesses the task is even harder as they seem to get fashion savvy at a much younger age nowadays.
One of the things I have noticed though is the number of young ladies (and older ones too) who favour wearing decorated hair bands, and as I make a few to sell I thought I would share how to make your own from a small length of soft elastic, a discarded bra, and a small scrap of fabric.

Materials.

 24 inches/ 60 cms of soft elastic in the colour of your choice.
I buy mine on line and the bi-fold elastic works a treat and only costs pennies a metre.

One loop and one slider from an old bra.
If it's the wrong colour you can either spray it or paint it with nail polish. Use tweezers to hold the small parts to colour them. If you are lucky to find clear ones these are even better.

Fabric of your choice torn in a 2 inch strip. The length will determine how full the rose is. I just tore a strip across the width of my fabric.


Method

First make your flower.
Take the fabric strip and fold in half with the right side of the fabric on the outside.

 At one end take the corner of the folded edge and bring it down to the torn edge. You will have formed a small triangle.

 If you have a hot glue gun put a tiny dab if glue at the bottom to hold in place. If using a needle and matching thread make a couple of small stitches here to hold the base of the triangle in place.
Next you are going to roll your strip a couple of times tightly to create the flower centre. Again you will need a spot of glue  or a stitch at the base to hold the centre in place.

Now you are going to twist the fabric strip about twice and then turning the flower in your hand glue or stitch the fabric around the base to create a rose shape.

This may seem fiddly and you are probably wise to practice with a spare bit of fabric first, but you will soon get the feel for it.
Once you reach the end of the strip, fold it down again as you did in the beginning making a neat triangle with the end and finally securing it to the base of your flower.
If you want a more open bloom, make the twists looser, if you prefer a tight looking rose keep the twists firm and even. The secret is to keep checking that you are securing the 'petals' or folds to the base with each twist so that the flower does not unravel.
Of course this is only one type of flower, you could make one from layers of felt petals, or my favourite a melted rose made from synthetic taffetas,organza and even dress linings.
If any one would like a tutorial for my take on these, just let me know in the comments.

Next the band. Now this is the bit I love because the band is adjustable and is therefore suitable for babies, through to children and even adults.One size fits all!
First you need to thread about one inch of one end of your elastic through the rescued bra strap loop and sew or glue in place.

 I use a glue called Fabri-tac and it sticks firmly and permanently in minutes,

 but you can easily stitch instead by hand or machine. Keep this join facing you for the next step as shown in the photograph.
Next you need to thread the other end through the slider keeping the elastic flat and then through the loop again.

Finally the trickiest bit. Where the elastic threads behind the centre bar in the slider, pull it out so that it makes a loop standing away from the slider.

 This is so that you can then thread the loose end of the elastic over the bar as well .

Pull this through about an inch and then stick or sew it to hold it in place in the slider.

Just to clariy this picture the two outer pieces of elastic are the main band the inner two are where the loose end has been passed over the slider bar ready to glue or stitch in place.

The finished fully adjustable band

The bi fold elastic has a shiny and matt side, so it is easier to make sure that you glue wrong sides together at the loop and the slider. If your elastic is the same both sides just make a pen mark at each end of the side you are going to treat as the wrong side. It does help to prevent twisting the band.

 So all that is left is to glue or sew on your flower. I try on the band and position the loop and slider at the back of the head before attaching the flower and then I can see more accurately where I want the flower to sit.

Hope this is useful and you will make some lovely creations to dress up your party gear. As I said if anyone wants a how to for the melted rose I will post one if requested. I've included a picture below of one I made earlier so you can see what I am talking about.

Enjoy playing

TTFN

Jenny xx