https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/an-almost-entirely-no-sew-lolita-headband • Posted by sporkyllama
So I have two weeks of high school left, and one of the fun things we get to do in our last week is dress up. I've decided to go in sweet lolita, and I bought a skirt online which is absolutely adorable. I'm planning on improvising a top, and making anything else to go with it. That includes this headband, which I've just finished. I'm very pleased with it, and extremely relieved I didn't screw it up :) And because I'd rather be doing this than studying for my exams, I made a how-to! This is actually quite straightforward to make, and if I can then anyone can! And you probably don't need the tutorial but as I was saying, it's either study or Cut Out + Keep...hmm. Sorry for the lack of proper pictures for the first half, I wasn't thinking and didn't take any :( Oh, and bad hair day. Ignore please :)
So I have two weeks of high school left, and one of the fun things we get to do in our last week is dress up. I've decided to go in sweet lolita, and I bought a skirt online which is absolutely adorable. I'm planning on improvising a top, and making anything else to go with it. That includes this headband, which I've just finished. I'm very pleased with it, and extremely relieved I didn't screw it up :) And because I'd rather be doing this than studying for my exams, I made a how-to! This is actually quite straightforward to make, and if I can then anyone can! And you probably don't need the tutorial but as I was saying, it's either study or Cut Out + Keep...hmm. Sorry for the lack of proper pictures for the first half, I wasn't thinking and didn't take any :( Oh, and bad hair day. Ignore please :)
Get a piece of thin cardboard - about the thickness of a cereal box - and work out the dimensions you'd like. I used a leftover piece of glossy poster paper, and chose to make it 27cm long and 5cm wide. Cut it out and measure it around your head in front of a mirror, so you can see if the shape suits your head :) If not, adjust as necessary. Don't allow it to crease, because I'm pretty sure it'd show. I then rounded off the corners with a coin.
Get your fabric and cut out a rectangle about 2cm wider than your cardboard piece in each direction. This picture is supposed to be the cardboard on top of fabric. (I know, right? My Microsoft Paint skills are awesome.) Start gluing the fabric on the underside of the cardboard with fabric glue. I used a paintbrush to spread it evenly, pleating the fabric around the corners. Make sure you stretch it so the fabric is tight and doesn't have "bubbles", so to speak.
Now the underside of the cardboard should still be exposed in the middle, with a fabric border which is probably fraying by now. How best to fix a problem? Cover it up and ignore it, of course! I cut a piece of fabric big enough to cover the rest of the cardboard and used Fray Stop on the edges because I'm lazy. I then glued it down with more fabric glue. This picture was taken at the end; please ignore the decorations, at this point you should only have the cardboard covered in fabric =P
Time for the crosses! I cut pieces of ribbon slightly longer than I needed and played around, working out how big I wanted to make the crosses. Since it's 27cm long, I eventually decided to start 1cm from each end and make 5 crosses, each 5cm wide. I marked my 5cm intervals with a pencil and also the middle points the crosses needed to go through, just so I'd be sure it was even. Then I trimmed the ribbon pieces as required, dabbed some Fray Stop on the ends and glued them down with fabric glue, again using a paintbrush so the layer of glue would be even and not thick enough to seep through.
Now grab your hot glue gun and set it up :) I think this is fairly straightforward, just apply glue and press down in as straight a line as you possibly can, working bit by bit. Pleat around the rounded corners or it'll look funny. I also pleated along the shorter ends, simply because I thought it looked pretty. Of course, I forgot that the bows covered up those ends completely...so don't waste your time =P Might I add, thank god my hot glue gun does not get hot enough to burn me or I would probably not be able to type for months :)
Here's the completed border. :D
Time to make bows! I love bows. They make virtually anything look good. (Except perhaps boys.) This should be fairly straightforward and there are plenty of bow how-tos on this site, but I may as well show you how I did mine. I sealed the loop for the top part of the bows using fabric glue, then gathered and sewed. The tail parts are simply a piece of ribbon gathered in the centre. Don't forget to burn any raw edges :) Though I didn't burn the tail ends until I'd put the bows together. Also, I made the part that goes around the middle by cutting a piece of ribbon in half, using Fray Stop on the raw edge and then gluing it in half again with fabric glue. Or you could prepare ahead at the craft store and buy a thinner ribbon in the same colour.
Here's a finished bow. I hot glued the tail part to the top part in the centre, and since the tail gets pushed downwards you end up with this :) I was planning on leaving the tails this long because I thought it was cute, but once I'd held it on the headband and looked in a mirror I realised the ends were ridiculous looking in their length against the side of my head, so I shortened them considerably.
And now, we glue! Use your hot glue gun to glue the bows down on the ends. I decided it looked best with the middle of the bow right against the lace edge, so the tails overhang. You might decide you want to glue it a bit higher or something, so check against your head before gluing :)
Last step! Find some ribbon in an appropriate colour, such as what you used to make the crosses, and hot glue it to the underside of the headband. I used black instead of white because it camouflages into my black hair :) You might want to do the same. I used two pieces which were about 30cm long each so I could comfortably have enough to tie a bow under my hair. (I totally cheated and used the same picture twice) I actually glued it slightly off centre so it'd sit properly on my head, though that's probably not necessary.
Finished! Yaye! Time to figure out a matching choker or something..