Valentine's Headband Tutorial

I posted this pic a little bit ago on Facebook and got enough positive feedback that I thought I'd share a little 'how-to' here on the blog!

Materials:

Fold Over Elastic (FOE)

Felt Stickers or Flower Embellishments

(I bought these at JoAnne's in the Valentine's Section under 'card making supplies' - they were $2.99 for a bag and were 40%. You can also find paper flowers, embellishments, etc. 

in the scrapbooking section of Michael's or JoAnne's.)

Felt

(you don't need much so the 8x10 squares from any craft store work GREAT!)

Other supplies:
Hot Glue
Sewing Machine (optional)
Measuring Tape
Pinking Shears/Scissors

Step 1:  Determine how big you need your headband. You can either use a measuring tape and measure the circumfrence of your baby/child's noggin...

...or you can use an old headband that currently fits said baby/child and use it as a guide.  Cut the FOE a little bit shorter than the actual circumfrence - you want the headband to have the desired amount of stretch so it will stay on their head.

Step 2:  'designing' the headband.  Play around with your different felt stickers/embellishments - here are a few examples that I came up with....

Step 3:  Glue stickers/embellishments onto the felt.  You can either remove the backing on the sticker and glue or you can leave the backing on.  

For this particular headband - I chose to remove the paper backing and then glue onto the sticky side.  (I thought maybe it'd provide extra hold?)

Step 4:  Use pinking shears (or standard scissors) and cut the felt around the stickers - try to get as close as possible to the edge of the sticker.  I like the look that the pinking shears give to the design but a straight edge would look great too.

Step 5:  Make the 'band' - you can use a sewing machine and sew the two ends together (overlapping a bit) or you can use your hot glue (as I did here) to glue them together.

Step 6:  Glue the embellishment to the band.  Using your hot glue, make a squiggle line down the length of the embellishment in the area where your FOE will go.

Press down, making sure the correct side of the band is facing out (in this case, the shiny side of the FOE will face outwards)

Step 7:  Once again, using your pinking shears; cut a strip/rectangle of felt to cover the FOE on the backside of your embellishment.

Step 8:  PROJECT COMPLETE! Congratulations on creating a SUPER cute Valentine's headband for your little lovely to wear on February 14th (or any day of the year)!

Here are a few other examples:

Love this one - black FOE with paper flowers that I found at Michael's - goes with LOTS of outfits!

Bottom to Top:  Red Felt Flower with Leaf on White FOE, another Valentine's Felt Sticker  arrangement on light blue FOE, Crocheted flowers on white FOE

Detail - these crocheted flowers were found in the scrapbook section at JoAnne's!  Perfect colors to go with so many of the pink outfits my baby girl has and the rhinestones are fun too.