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I love refashioning and reusing t-shirts and other fabric scraps. Upcycling all those t-shirts is so eco-conscious. I could write blog posts about all the t-shirt remakes that I do. Alas, most are reused into cloth napkins, of which I have a variety of uses in my house. However, the colorful t-shirts are often remade into something else, like upcycling skirts or completely remaking a shirt into a cut-out design. Let’s turn this thrifted t-shirt into a fabric headband!!
Refashion a Fabric Headband from a Thrifted T-Shirt
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Materials needed:
Your t-shirt or fabric doesn’t have to be sparkly. You can use anything, as long as it stretches.
I bought this sparkly black t-shirt at my local thrift store. 50% off! $1.50.
But, alas, it was too scratchy and itchy to wear!! What’s a fashionista to do?
Why, we’re going to refashion it into a fabric headband, and make scratchy be gone!
Each shirt can make three or four (depending on the size of the shirt and the size of the head).
I’m going to use this stretchy fabric that was leftover from another project to show you the step-by-step because black sparkly won’t photograph well.
To make your own tie-dye for a plain white t-shirt or white fabric for your own headband project, use Rit All-Purpose Powder Dye, Petal Pink.
I found one of my daughter’s headbands to determine the length, and added an inch on either side. I want wide headbands — the skinny ones just don’t stay in your hair very well. Cut the headbands approximately one inch on either side of the width, too.
Sew on both sides using a jig-jag stitch. You need to use this stitch, otherwise the headband won’t stretch properly.
Okay, this is the important part. You need to leave a hole on one side near the end, but not at the end. The hole should be approximately an inch long.
The next step is to take the tube that you just created, and feed it in itself, in half. So you are going to feed end up through to the other end. The Right Side (RS) should be on the inside, and the Wrong Side (WS) should still be on the outside. Once you have the tube in half, line up the ends so that the seams match.
Here is a picture to describe what we are doing.
That is the tube, rolled up inside itself. The WS is on the outside, and the RS is on the inside. Take your time with this step. It took me a few tries to even figure out how to roll the headband up inside itself. But once you get it, you’ll just how easy creating these headbands are.
Here is a sideways view of it.
Now, sew the tops together in the same jig-jag stitch. Trim the excess from the top.
Remember that little hole we created? Now it’s time to turn the entire thing right-side out. Grab some of the fabric from inside the little hole, and pull out the headband a little at a time until it looks like a fabric headband.
The last step is just to sew up the little hole. I used a whipstich to close it up.
And there you have it!
The final product:
