How to Sew a Headband that Doesn’t Slip Off Your Head

Some days (and I mean just a few days) I get inspired to try to look cute. If I am not going anywhere for the day and you stop by to say hi, I guarantee you will find me in something with elastic shorts. This summer I gave it my best to not wear a t-shirt every day. Old Navy had some simple slub knit tees that I tried to wear. Truthfully, I liked their fit so well that I bought five of the exact same shirts. They were $4.00 a piece, and I thought, this should get me through the summer.

I did well for a few months. I actually wore my white slub knit tees. Then I regressed. I started wearing my old softball shirts and university t-shirts.

As long as I can remember, I have loved the look of headbands. The ones where you buy a fun scarf and tie it around your head. So, I go to the store, buy a scarf, get my hair all done, put the scarf on, tie it really tight, and then I leave to go somewhere. I get in the van, turn my neck around to look out the back of the garage, and you know what happens. THE HEADBAND POPS OFF the back of my head. Every time.

I was inspired a couple weeks ago to accessorize my t-shirt and jeans wardrobe with some casual headbands. They make me feel a tad more dressed up. Yep, I made a few. And yep, the same thing happened. I wore them for a day and decided it’s not worth keeping my head straight forward all day long to keep them from falling off.

Instead of giving up this time, I experimented a bit and figured out how to sew a no slip headband.

This little roll of ribbon is the trick. 🙂

Supplies:
Strip of fabric three inches thick
Sewing machine
Thread
Elastic
Velvet ribbon
Iron

1. Cut a strip of fabric that measures 3 inches by 22 inches. This length is a good starting point for a headband, but you may end up trimming some off the fabric until you find a good length for you. I have a big head (literally) and this length is perfect (so likely you will need your fabric a bit shorter).

2. Fold over an approximate quarter of an inch and iron the fold as you go. Do this on both sides of the strip of fabric.

3. Iron the ends of the fabric as well. Fold over approximately a quarter of an inch of fabric and iron the crease.

4. Fold the strip of fabric right down the middle and iron the fold.

5. You should have finished edges on all sides of your fabric now. Here’s the ‘no slip’ part of the headband. Take a strip of velvet ribbon and cut it almost the full length of your headband. Cut it just a few inches shy of the same length of your headband.

Since you will be adding elastic to the ends, you don’t want the fabric and elastic and ribbon overlapping all at the same spot.

6. Sew the velvet ribbon to the underside of your headband.

Underside = the side of the headband that lays on your head when the fold or crease faces forward.

You can see in the below picture that I stitched around all sides of the ribbon. I used about an eighth of an inch seam allowance.

And below is what it looks like once the ribbon is sewn on. When you are stitching around your ribbon and come to a corner, stop sewing, leave your needle down in your ribbon, lift your presser foot, turn your ribbon, and then keep going.

7. Cut 3 inches of elastic.  I used 5/8 of an inch braided polyester elastic. Tuck about a half of an inch of it inside one end of your headband inside the fold.

8. Sew across the the end of your headband. This should secure your elastic to your headband. I sew forward, then backward, and then forward once more across the elastic. Since I will be pulling quite a bit when I stretch my headband, I want to make sure it is secure.

Tuck the elastic inside the other end of the headband and sew again, like in the picture below.

The fabric I used was actually part of the bag that a set of sheets came in. They were the plus sign sheets that Target carried for a while. I am not sure if they still carry them. If you are looking for something similar, Cotton and Steel has a line of fabric currently out with lots of little crosses like I show in the picture above.

I have not had any trouble with these headbands shifting and falling off. I tried them out, and I forget I even had a headband on. I could move my head every which way and it doesn’t lose grip.  I encourage you to give them a shot…especially since there is so much beautiful fabric available these days.

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