Tutorial Tuesday- Lace and Tulle Headband

For those of you who missed my tutorial over at It's So Very Cheri, I am posting it here to make sure no one misses out :)  I think the headband turned out super cute, what do you think?

Thanks to my cute sister-in-law for letting me use her as a model :)

Supplies:

- The sewing machine is only used for sewing the lace together in the back, so that could easily be done by hand if you don't have a sewing machine.

-a sewing needle

-4 inches beige tulle

-4 inches brown tulle

-4 inches off-white lace

-brown stretchy lace ribbon

-scrap felt

-5 off-white pearl buttons

-brown thread

-a hot glue gun

These supplies cost me less than $10!

Steps:

1) Measure around your head (where the headband would go).  Mine was 21 1/2 inches, but you'll want to find your own measurement so it fits just right.  Then add one inch to that for a seam allowance.  So I cut my lace ribbon 22 1/2 inches long. 

2) Fold it in half and sew it together using a 1/2 inch seam allowance.  I went back and forth a couple times just to make sure it was secure.  Set the headband aside and lets whip out those flowers now.

3) I started with my beige tulle flowers.  Cut out circles of different sizes and stack them from largest to smallest.  They definitely don't have to be perfect circles.  Keep making circles until you've used all of your tulle. 

4) Now it's time to sew that little stack of tulle into a flower.  Fold it in half and stick your threaded needle through.  Then carefully fold it in half the other way and stick your needle through that way.  It will make a little x. 

5) Your flower should be pretty secure now.  Thread on one pearl bead.

6) Grasp the bottom of your flower and work it a little until you achieve the shape you want.  Then thread your needle through a few times in different places to secure it.  I found on my second flower that you can even wrap the thread around the bottom a couple times to keep it in place and then sew through it a couple times.  It may look a little messy down there but that doesn't matter because no one will see that part :) Tie the ends of the thread together a few times to secure and trim off excess thread.

7) You have one flower complete!  Next I did my brown tulle flower.  I knew I wanted it to be a bit smaller so I cut smaller circles and I only used about 3 of the 4 inches I had cut.  Other than that- exact same process!

8) Now it's time to make your lace flower.  I wanted this one to be a little bit bigger than the beige tulle flower so I cut my circles accordingly.  I didn't need to use all of the lace because it is much thicker than the tulle, but I used most of it.

9) I used the same exact process for this flower but I threaded on three pearl beads instead of one and I didn't bunch it quite as tightly because I wanted this one to have a more open look.

10) Trim the edges of your flowers if desired.  I did a little trimming to make sure they looked just how I wanted.

11) Arrange your flowers on a piece of felt.  Once you achieve the formation you like, hot glue them into place. 

12) Cut the felt around the spots where you glued the flowers, like so:

13) Pull out the headband and try it on.  Then hold your flower formation up to it until you find just where you want it.  Use one hand to hold it in place and the other to remove the headband.  Go back to your craft room and lay the headband on just where you have it. 

14) Cut another piece of felt similar in size to the one you already used and hot glue the two together.

And that's it, you're done!  This project did take a little time, probably an hour or so, but it was pretty easy and I'm very happy with the results!  Hope you like it too :)