I don’t have the time or frankly ability to make my growing kid lots of cute clothing she’ll quickly grow out of - I limit myself to cozy pajamas and the like that will get a lot of repeat wear. But one thing I have made for her that has gotten a lot of mileage has been custom headbands.

You can buy headband ‘blanks’ at lots of craft stores or online. They’re just plain plastic, and you zjuzh them up by covering the plastic with fun fabric and any adornment you like. My kid loves a small bow slightly offset, so that’s what I make.

The best part is pretty much any fun fabric you have lying around can make a great headband fabric since it doesn’t use much fabric at all.

The very simple pattern I made and use

As you can see above, I fashioned my own very simple pattern for headbands. The headband in the photo is the blank.

The fabric is fabulous isn’t it? My kid is a big shark enthusiast, and I found this fabric on a recent batch shop from Yuzawaya - a big Japanese crafting and sewing chain store that I visit when I’m in Japan, and thankfully they also ship to the United States. I save up the fabrics and notions I’m interested in so I order all at once in a big batch, though the fabrics do sell out fast if they’re especially seasonal (early September all the Halloween and most Christmas fabrics were already GONE). Thankfully shark fabric has less demand!

Shark fabric from Yuzawaya

This specific fabric is essentially canvas, so it’ll hold up well for a headband for sure. I thought I’d use the remnants for a pillowcase but it’s too rough for that. Maybe I’ll make lots of headbands?!

I made this headband from Japanese cotton remnants I’d had in my stash for years. The cotton is very soft and thin, a bit too delicate for a quilt and not nearly enough to create anything big. But perfect for this headband.

Sewing up the headband is easy breezy, takes maybe 30 minutes start to finish.

Shark headband work in progress

My pattern isn’t perfect so since I was feeling a bit picky, I didn’t like how loose the fabric looked at this stage. So I re-flipped the headband and sewed it with seams further in to tighten the fabric against the headband base.

Can you tell I do my sewing at night? Haha

Shark headband complete!

I hand-close the fabric with a simple ladder stitch to reduce any irritating seams against my little one’s scalp (she has yet to complain so I assume I’m doing a good job there). After assembling the bow, I make it into a little knot, and then tack it onto the top. I suppose I could hot glue it, but why use glue when thread is better?

I have been informed by My VIP Customer that the shark headband is everything she was hoping for and she plans to wear it on school picture day. I can’t imagine a better endorsement than that!