I have thick hair that usually hates any store bought headband that was ever created.  Even those fancy pants “sports headbands” for active types that have that silicone strip on them.  When I put those on my hair they usually just slowly started to pop backwards off of my head and leave a nice little crease in its place.  Boo!  I wanted to try to find something that was not only adjustable, but actually stayed on my frickin’ head throughout the whole day!  So, I developed the My Pretty Little Valentine Headband and thought I’d share it with you all in case anyone else out there in the world shared my same headband problems!

There is an awesome thrift store around here called Fortune Thrift Store and they are a non-profit company that supports and funds a women’s shelter in the area.  They help women get back on their feet and when they’re ready to start working again they place them in positions at the thrift store to get work experience for them and then help them get other jobs when they’re ready to be back in the world again.  All of the clothes there are sooooo cheap!  This shirt was listed as $3.99, but since it has a white tag it was only .10 cents!!  So, your first step is to locate a stretchy cotton shirt that you don’t mind cutting up.  Pick any color you’d like, but to get the whole Valentine’s Day effect try to find a pretty little pink one.

Turn that sucker on its side and cut the bottom hem off of it.  Don’t worry about being super straight about it unless you’re slightly compulsive about things like that in which case straight edge away!

Cut three strips similar to this.  I didn’t measure them but I’d say they were about 1.5″ to 2″ in width.  Again… don’t be pretty about it.  I wasn’t… as you can see.  :)

Cut off the seams on the edges and then keep the longer of the two strips you have.  Pretty much you’re cutting the seam that separates the back of the shirt from the front of the shirt and then keeping the longest piece.

Having a model is pretty helpful too to make sure that everything will fit right.  This one seems to be going pretty well…

Take all three pieces and cut them to be about the same length with each other.

RIT DYE, BABY!  It’s my favorite.  :)  I picked Scarlet and Purple to go with my existing pink to make a pretty Valentine theme.  You pick whatever color you and if you’re feeling spunky… mix and match those dyes and make something crazy.

Pour a little bit of the Scarlet dye in a container you don’t care too much about.  I chose and old Cool Whip container that we use for leftovers.  Mix enough hot water in with the dye and melt the dye completely to get that awesome ruby red water.  Run one of the pink strips under the warm water and then mix it in the red dye and let sit for about fifteen minutes.

Repeat with that pretty, pretty purple!

When the fifteen minutes is up rinse out the red and purple strips until you don’t see any more dye in the water when you squeeze them out.  Put the new pretty red and purple strips in the dryer for about ten or fifteen minutes to let them dry or let them air dry.  Your choice.  I’m impatient so I put them in my dryer.

If you don’t own a sewing machine you can totally hand sew these… or even tie a knot in the end or attach a bead.  It doesn’t matter!  Have fun with it.  I chose to use my fancy new sewing machine to quickly sew one side of the ends together.

See?  Fancy.

Now braid away, darlings, braid away!

Flatten out the ends at the end of the braid and then run it through the sewing machine again to lock the braid in place.

Trim off the excess fabric and thread to make it look similar to the other end.

Tie that bad boy on top of your head to make it fit just right!

Now flip that pretty little thing around and show off your new awesome, one of a kind, specially made just for your head shape, adjustable headband!  WOO!!  Hide the excess under your hair or tuck it up into the band.  When I wear it with my my hair up I usually just tuck them into my hairdo.  :)

Tada!  A repurposed headband that only cost .10 cents to make!!  Tell all of your friends!  … you know you want to.  :)