Dancing In Winter: Tuesday Tutorial - Velvet No Slip Headband

This week's tutorial is my first attempt to make one of those awesome velvet bands everyone swears by for keeping their tichels in place. This velvet band is very grip-y and will help hold your heavier tichel wraps in place and give you some extra traction to keep those beautiful but slick scarves from sliding right off.

You Will Need -
*Stretchy Velvet in a color to match your hair, black, or cream (don't buy your velvet until you've read the entirety of the directions as the way the nap of the velvet falls is very important)
*Some thread to match the velvet
*Sew on Velcro to match the velvet
*Something to make a pattern with (pattern weight interfacing or even newspaper)

1 - First you need to measure around your hairline or where you normally wear your headcovering. Because you will be using stretchy velvet you will actually subtract one inch from this measurement for the length of your headband (I didn't do this and my headband was too long and I had to cut some off the ends but if you are worried you can always make it too long and cut some off after you try it on in step 6). Once you have your length, draw a straight line of that length on your pattern paper (make sure to leave a few inches above and below that line). Mark the middle of your line. At the middle, draw a line perpendicular to your first line that extends above and below that line two inches. Draw a line at either end of the original straight line. It should extend 1.5 inches on either side. Connect your upright lines. Your finished product should look very similar to the drawn out pattern above with the only major difference being the length of the original straight line in the center.

This is the old dress that is going to be cut up to become my new tichel grip band (and a couple other projects)

2- Feel your fabric to determine how the nap of the velvet lays. You need the velvet to lay along the width of your band (the 4 inch wide part of your pattern), not the length (the part of your pattern that is the circumference of your head). This concept is probably better shown than explained so you might want to refer to the Wrapunzel Video Tutorial on Velvet Bands to see what I mean.

3 - Once you've determined the lay of your velvet, place your pattern on the velvet so the grain is along the width. Pin the pattern and cut it out.

4 - Fold the headband in half and pin the unfinished edges together.

5 - Using an overlock stitch (or a tightly packed zigzag stitch if your machine does not have an overlock stitch), sew the edges of your folded headband together.

6 - Try your headband on and make sure it fits and doesn't overlap at the back more than two or three inches. If your headband overlaps too much, you can cut a little off each end and re-overlock those edges. (I made my band too long the first time and had to do this)

7 - Place a pin at the very middle of your band. Place two more pins evenly spaced on either side of your band (see the diagram above). Using a straight stitch, sew a zigzag pattern from one pin to the next (your finished product should look something like the red line on the diagram above). This will help keep your headband from stretching too far or rolling while you're wearing it.

8 - Pin on your sew-on velcro. I usually pin the "hook" side on first so I can make sure it will be facing away from my scalp. Then I pin the "soft" side to the part of the velvet band that faces the "hooks." You'll want to test your pinning to make sure your velcro is in the right place. You can wrap the headband around your own head or any other cylindrical object to test the velcro placement before you sew. Once you've tested the velcro placement, carefully sew the velcro onto the headband with a straight stitch around the edges of the velcro.

9 - Your velvet tichel headband is finished!!! wrap it around the nearest person, object or foam head to celebrate!!! Then you should try it on and start playing around with your heaviest and/or slickest scarves because now you can. (Remember the velvet should be facing in such a manner that when you rub your fingers back from your hairline is almost feels like they are being grabbed by the velvet)