Bandanna to Headband

So, this is the latest on the ornament.  It's about an hour of work and I did it on Wednesday.  I think.  I know I haven't worked on it since Wednesday because I developed a migraine and an obnoxious head cold that night and I haven't worked on anything since.

And I had such great plans for this week!  I want to make sure I don't burn myself out out of guilt, and I want to make consistent progress.  So I get frustrated when there are interruptions to the forward motion.

Still, I did finish another project that I had had in mind for several months.  I decided to make a hairband out of a bandanna.  I like headbands and I like bandannas.  I hardly ever wear either, because they don't stay on my head very well.  Still, they are very useful for road trips; they allow me to go into convenience stores without looking like a total bum, or else having to get up 1 1/2 hours earlier than everyone else in order to do my hair.

I searched for simple and free patterns online, unsuccessfully.  There are lots of very cute patterns that are also free, but they were not what I had in mind.  I am not a good sewist--I really cannot sew a straight line, as is obvious in the below pictures--and I wanted to do something very basic.  So I just decided to buy a couple of bandannas at the dollar store and just go for it.

Blue dollar store bandanna

Red dollar store bandanna

Then I got out my rotary cutter and clear quilting ruler and cut a strip out of the center--the hypotenuse, the longest part.  I had decided I wanted the finished headbands to be 2 1/2", with 1/4" hems, so I measured 1 1/2" from the center on either side.

I did have to fold the bandannas in half because the ruler wasn't quite long enough.  You can see that I didn't quite get it symmetrical.  I believe the dollar store bandannas weren't quite square--you get what you pay for, I guess.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  For another project, I might have been inclined to re-do it and get it right, but this was sort of an experiment and I didn't care enough.  I don't think anyone will be close enough to inspect these for quality.

Next I pressed down the hem allowances:

Wrong side view

Right side view

And finally I sewed the side hems:

The final products.

Overall, I'm happy with this little experiment.  I had an idea and I followed through with it.  It worked.  These are wearable enough.  And I have two more travel headbands.