Retro hairband

Did you see the recent makeover my mum did of a Laura Ashley dress for me? Well, since the sleeves were shortened, it left me with some fabric for other projects! This retro hairband is the first of these.

I based the design of the hairband on one I've had for years. I love the style of it, and it is really comfortable, but the colours of it are so bright that I don't wear it often (well, other than to keep my hair out of the way when I'm using a face mask!). So I decided to use this fabric to make something similar, but that would match more outfits.

1. I cut the sleeves up so I could see how much fabric I had. After measuring this against the existing hairband, I decided to cut one piece of 37cm x 20cm, and another of 27cm x 8cm.

2. I sewed the smaller piece of fabric into a tube, and hemmed the long sides of the larger piece.

3. I inserted a piece of wide elastic, about 17cm long, into the tube, pulling it so that the fabric was ruched over the elastic. I attached it with a safety pin at each end.

4. I folded the unhemmed edges of the larger piece of fabric in a concertina fashion, and inserted them in the ends of the fabric tube, and folded the ends of the tube inwards to hide the raw edges.

5. I sewed a few lines across the ends of the tube, making sure to catch the inserted ends of fabric and the ends of the elastic.

I'm delighted with how this turned out! The hairband has exactly the retro look I wanted (it looks like a scarf tied in the hair, but is a lot less hassle!). You can leave the fabric quite gathered on top of the head, like I've done, or spread it out more for a different look.

I can't wait to make more of these in different colours - in fact I've got some fabric picked out already!

Come back tomorrow to see something else I made with the leftover fabric from the vintage dress!