More DIY Headbands

WOW...these last few weeks have been crazy busy, and CRAZY overwhelming. I'll fill you in about all of that later. In the meantime, there were a couple of days that I was able to accomplish more DIY headbands during Emily's beloved nap-time!!

One of my favorite blogs that I follow: LITTLE MISS MAMA, is having a headband challenge HERE. So I thought I had better get my butt in gear and show you the rest of the headbands that I have created from other tutorials that I have found.

The first one I was so excited to make because I loved the picture from the tutorial that I found. You can find the tutorial HERE from Lee La La.

In playing with my hair...I think that, for me and my hairstyle, it is a lot cuter when my hair is pulled back. I like that this can be dressed up or down and look SUPER cute!! This was SO easy to make. I followed the tutorial exactly and had no problems or struggles.



The next headband I made...I think that I need to change it up a bit. It definitely has the potential to be SUPER cute, but since I am "new" at the whole headband wearing look, it is too big of a statement for me to make. So, the only change that I would make is to use a smaller width of lace and maybe even a smaller diameter for the accessory as a whole.
You can find the tutorial HERE from Little Miss Mama

The next headband was actually fun to make. It uses satin fabric, and the only satin I had was 1 1/2in wide ribbon. So, if I were to make this again, I would actually go and buy some satin so that I could have more liberty at choosing the size of the circles that I could cut. I like this a lot, but I would also like to see how slightly larger circles would turn out.
You can find the tutorial HERE from (again) Joy Is At Home

Because my satin circles were smaller than desired, I ended up making three flowers and then hot gluing them together to create a little more presence. I didn't actually glue them to the headband, I just slipped in a hair clip so that I could have the option of attaching it to a decorative headband that I recently purchased from JoAnns or I could clip it to a more subtle hairband, or I could just clip it right on to my hair.

DIY Headbands

I have come to cherish Emily's nap times!!! My daily routine has consisted of making sure to do my chores in the morning, then spending "play" time with Emily, and finally, when she goes down for a nap....it's MY time!!! For some reason I have had this craving to make hair accessories lately, either for me or for Emily...or even for friends as gifts.  I have been looking at a bunch of different blog tutorials and I found a handful that I wanted to make. To get started, I had all of the tutorials open in different tabs on my laptop and I made a list of all of the materials that I needed to get...and then it was off to the store.

Saturday, during Emily's nap time, I was able to bust out a couple different accessories. I already can't wait to make more, but this week is going to be super busy for me, so hopefully I can find a day or two this week to make more.

This was my first headband. You can find the tutorial HERE from Little Miss Mama. It is SUPER easy, and CRAZY cute. It's one of those things where you say, "Why didn't I think about that??"

 

Here is the one I made. It actually rook two tries to make this. As easy as this should have been, I didn't take into consideration that the headband needs to stretch when you place it on your head...so when I finished my "first" headband, I went to the mirror and attempted to place the headband on my head...and then...BING!!! POW!!! Just like that hilarious commercial where the buttons fly off of the pants of people eating fast food, a couple of my buttons that were on the very top of the headband flew off with such power. It was pretty funny!! For the fix, I just popped the rest of the buttons off and started all over. For my second attempt I ended up finding a box that I could stretch the headband across so that when I glued the buttons on they would be in the perfect position...and IT WORKED!!! I love this headband!

The second hair accessory I made turned out a lot better than I thought it would...only because I didn't trust that I had the patience or enough talent. The tutorial that I used can be found HERE from Snips & Spice

This one took a little bit of patience, on my part, only because I am such a perfectionist and a cheap wad...I was so afraid of messing up and not being able to reuse the zipper. The tutorial I used was really good because it had a ton of pictures for each step of the process. It took a little while getting used to making the corners of the triangle, but I got the hang of it. The length of the zipper I used for this was only 17 inches long. I ended up hot gluing a small piece of the leftover zipper fabric on the back to make a little tunnel-like thing that I could attach my bobby pin, or a clip, to to put it in my hair.

I have A LOT more tutorials that I will be working on the next few weeks, and I will continue to share with you how they turn out. The headband that I'm in the middle of working on now can be found HERE at Joy Is At Home. The only reason I'm not finished with it is because Emily woke up from her nap :)

I should find some time by the end of the week! Can't wait to show you!

Tulle Flower Tutorial

As you know, Emily's 2nd Birthday has a TU-TU theme, so I am trying to do as much decorating as I possibly can with tulle. For her 1st birthday, it was so much fun having the guests be involved in the theme by wearing antennae headbands...so I wanted to come up with a way to involve the guests for our upcoming tu-tu party.

Without embarrassing everyone and having them all wear tu-tu's, I thought I could make some sort of a hair accessory for the girls...and then Craig and I thought it would be fun to have the guys wear a fun exaggerated tie.

I found a video on how to make these flowers here: Tulle Flower Video

The video does a great job of showing you how to make these. I'll show you my step by step pictures and show you just how easy it really is:

TULLE FLOWER TUTORIAL

 MATERIALS:

• Tulle
• Scissors
• Embellished Brads
• Tea Light Candle
• Glass
• Tweezers

1.  Cut your tulle into circles the size of your choice. I just grabbed a cup from my cupboard and used it as a template. I didn't want them to be too big because little girls would be wearing them...but not that I think of it, it would have been SUPER cute to have over-sized hair accessories. Don't forget, the size of the flower will be much smaller than the circle you make

2.   Take one circle, at a time, and pinch it in the center.

3.   I piled about four circles together and held the centers with my tweezers.

4.   Place the tulle circles over the flame...NOT IN THE FLAME!!! The heat inside the votive holder is enough to melt the edges of the tulle circles. Continually rotate/move your tulle circles around so that you get an all-over melting effect.

5.   Take the pinched circles and open them up.

6.  Place the circles, from smallest to largest, onto your brad. I placed six circles on each flower. I wouldn't do any less than that because it didn't seem to have enough presence.

7.   Close the brad to lock the tulle in place.

8. I used hot glue to connect the flower to the hair clip. I just placed a strip of the hot glue on the metal of the brad. Then, before I placed the hair clip in the glue, I pinched the clip to open it up because I didn't want it to be glued closed. A lot of times, people use felt on the back of hair accessories to attach them to clips or headbands, but I thought that a felt back would look to heavy on the flower. The hot glue worked really well.

And there you have it!!! Easy, fun, and totally cute!!!

How To Make Fabric Yo-Yo's

I have read so many other blogs and seen their cutesy crafty attempts at creating hair accessories...so I finally decided to have at it, and here is what I have created:

 

Yep...I made my daughter and I matching hair accessories for the 4th of July. This was SUPER easy...which is what I'm all about!! The technique is called: Yo-Yo Fabric.  So, here is my first attempt at doing a tutorial:

This is what the yo-yo maker looks like. I purchased mine at JoAnne Fabrics. I used two different sizes: small and large. 

The great thing about this is that you can use up your scrap fabric. I have a lot of little pieces of fabric left over from making Emily summer dresses last summer and they are the perfect size.

So, to begin, take your fabric and place it between the two pieces of the yo-yo maker. Cut around the edge...you really don't need much extra fabric around the edge for seam allowance, just enough to fold over the holes.

Next, you take your needle and thread, put a couple of knots at the end of your thread...fold the fabric towards the center of the disk and make your first stitch by coming up from the backside of the yo-yo (the picture below shows the direction of the first stitch.

Continue your stitches around the entire yo-yo...don't forget to continue to fold the fabric over to assure that the stitches go through it. Make sure to go around the circle with your stitches so that the stitch doesn't go over the hard plastic section. For example, my next stitch below would go to the right. When you have stitched around the entire circle you need to go over your first stitch one more time.

At this point...keep your needle on your thread. With your finger, push the disk through the hole to separate the two pieces. Remove the fabric from the disk by lifting the seam.

Now all you need to do is pull the thread. The folded seam will automatically tuck inside of the yo-yo. Once the opening is closed, I made a few extra stitches through the creases (I don't know why...probably just to tend to my paranoia) and then make a knot.

These are perfect just the way they are...OR you could add some embellishments with sewing a button in the middle of add a little bit of beading as well.  For the finishing touches, I hot glued my yo-yo's onto felt and then I hot glued mine onto a plain headband and my daughters onto an alligator clip (which I found a pack of 12 clips for $2)

Tada!!! The final product. This was fun to make. I made both accessories while I watched TV after Emily's bedtime...the night before the 4th of July. All that to say...these are super easy to make and they look ADORABLE!!!