Monday 3 June 2013

How to make a turban-style headband


After pulling together all the turban pictures for my post last week, my fingers started twitching and my mind set a-whizzing. Following on from my success with the bow headband, I wanted to make my own turban-style headband. There are hundreds of tutorials online about how to make something out of stretchy fabrics but I wanted to make something a little more structured, more like the ones selling for (typically) lots of money at Anthropologie.

So, I made it up. And, while my method could probably do with a little finessing, I was pleased with the result, as shown above. I went for red, white and blue stripes to go with every single item of summer clothing I own and, in my head, with the aim of looking something like this beautiful lady.

How to make a turban-style headband: 



1. I got a plain headband - this cost one cost me £1 from the local chemist and I stripped it of its original fabric. As with the previous headband how-to, I measured the length of the headband, added on about 5cm to work out what length of fabric I needed.


2. I folded the fabric in half and draw out a semi-circle. The height of the semi-circle depends on how much fabric you want in your band. Mine was 13cm, which seemed to work out quite well.


3. I cut down the fold to make two semi-circles of fabric.


4. This is the bit which probably could do with a more expert approach. I turned over about half a cm to the wrong side of my fabric and pressed.


5. Using a long stitch on my machine, I then tacked the fabric down. I then folded the edge over again to tuck away any fraying edges and pinned into position.


6. I then top-stitched over this new fold (neatly-ish), and unpicked the tacking stitch.


7. Placing the wrong sides of the fabric so they faced each other (with right sides facing out), I then stitched the pieces together, down the straight edge of the pieces, as close to the edge as possible.


8. I then refolded the fabric so that the right sides faced each other, wrong sides faced out (notice the 'W' in tailors chalk to remind me of this apparently simple but so easy to get wrong step). I sewed a second line, parallel to the straight edge, 2cm in from the edge - roughly double the width of the headband.


9. I then fed the headband through the tube I'd just created. (I also then lamented how messily I had unpicked my tacking, and went back and sorted that out).


10. Unfolding the fabric so right sides faced outwards again, and it was now looking like this - much more turban like. I folded up the edges of the fabric and hand-sewed them closed, so the headband was now fully encased. Then I pulled the fabric together in the centre of the band and tacked in roughly into place.


11. I made the loop for the centre of the band in the same way I did for the other headband: I folded a rectangle in half, right sides inwards, and sewed down the edge to make another tube-like shape. I turned it inside out and hand-sewed into place, round the centre of the band.



12. And ta da! Finished, and worn out twice and public since being finished. It was such a quick and fun make I imagine there will plenty of new versions with more fabrics and finishes to follow.


Even my ceramic bunny is getting in on the turban trend (though he does look slightly suspicious about it...!).

2 comments:

  1. I should have taken a photo of you wearing it on Saturday! It looks so lovely on you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, thank you. Yes, I really should have asked you to! The camera in the mirror shots weren't doing anything any favours.

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