We have a whole bunch of my old husband’s t-shirts that were just begging to be used. I had pinned a way to make headbands out of old t-shirts, and so I decided to try making them. They are relatively quick and easy to make. Kaylin especially loves them as she says,
“I have long hair and like to keep it out of my face. Headbands work well, but the hard kind hurt the back of my ears. My mom found out how to make soft headbands out of old t-shirts on pinterest.”
This is how I made the headbands:
- I first cut strips out of old t-shirts. I started with 2″ strips the way the original blog said, but the headbands are thicker and a little wide for a little girl’s heads; although Kaylin who is 10 can still wear it. For an adult, 2″ strips would work fine. I did one with 1½” strips, and one with 1″ strips, and I think I like 1″ strips best. I put my husband’s X-large t-shirts on my cutting mat, pinned the back and front together along the bottom edge, and then cut off the strips.
- Then I would cut the loop of the t-shirts strips so that they were not a round strip, but one long strip.
- It says to pull on the strands so that they will curl on the edges. I think that the more you pull on the strands, the skinnier the strands will get so that your headband will not be quite so wide.
- I sewed all 5 strips together like it says HERE.
- After the ends were sewed together, I pinned them to a folded blanket on my table.
Next, I braided them just like it showed in the above the tutorial link. I did not take pictures of this step, as the other blogger did such a great job taking pictures of the steps and should get credit for the idea. When I got it the right length, I would sew it along the bottom. I would then keep those strips that weren’t used, as many times they were long enough to make another headband.
Finally, the top and bottom of the headband should be sewn together as shown in the other tutorial, and then the piece of t-shirt that covers the sewn part of the headband should be made and put on the headband.
Kaylin wanted to give one as part of a present for a birthday party, so we made one on our craft day with friends. Since both girls go to the same school, we made it with the school’s colors: orange, black, and white. After it was made, I tried it on Kaylin’s head to make sure it was the right size before I cut off the extra length. The other ladies at my house thought it was cute to have the long strands hanging down her back, so the long strands were kept! I just cut off some of the length as they had been extremely long.
The blue headband was made with 2″ strips, and the orange, black, and white headband was made with 1″ strips. In the picture, they don’t look that different, but the orange, black and white headband is not as wide, and it is thinner.
