Minnie Mouse Ears

To go with my mermaid hair bands and my unicorn hair bands I decided to make some Minnie Mouse ear hair bands!

To make the ears I cut out two pairs of felt circles with a curve at the bottom to fit around the hair band. 

I've had this flowery felt for ages but never found the right project to use it. Until now! I thought it would be a fun change from the traditional black and red Minnie Mouse ears.

I sewed the circles together, leaving the curved section open so I could fill them with polyester stuffing. Then I sewed the ears to the hair band. I always make sure to buy hair bands that are covered in fabric, rather than just made of plastic, so that I have something to sew on to.

I then made a bright pink fabric bow to coordinate with the ears and attached that to the hair band.

And then I made some more!

I had a great time looking through my fabric and felt stash for matching colours and patterns.

Which one is your favourite?

Mermaid Hairband

After making some unicorn hairbands the next logical step seemed to be a mermaid hairband! Of course!

Here's how I made it.

The first step had me so stumped that I almost gave up. I needed to build a structure on the hairband that I could stick all the shells on. I tried one piece of felt that folded around the hairband but it kept leaning with the curve of the band. I even tried putting a piece of card in between but I still couldn't get it to stick up straight.
Then I got the idea to build up the structure with multiple pieces of felt. I cut circles of white felt which folded around the hairband. I glued and sewed them in place then added some pairs of semi-circles which made a scalloped pattern. Very appropriate for a mermaid theme.

With the structure in place it was time to add the decoration.
I started with a string of small shells across the bottom which I was able to sew to the felt.

Then I picked out some larger shells which I attached using my glue gun.

Then I filled in the gaps with more little shells, pearl beads and blue plastic beads. I don't think I've ever used my glue gun so much!

I added some more colour by painting the shells with blue and purple nail varnish to get a shimmery look.

The hairband is a little heavy but I'm really pleased the felt is able to hold all shells and remain sticking up.

Felt Flowers

If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen that I've been making a lot of felt flowers recently.

Don't judge the state of my mat!

Just before Christmas I treated myself to Cricut Maker and I've been exploring some of the patterns that come with it.
These flowers came from the felt flower wreath project.

To start off with I made a couple of hairbands with one large flower on.

I didn't follow the project exactly. This flower is made up of pieces from two different flowers, and I did my own thing for the centres.

Then I made a bunch more smaller flowers and used them to embellish the unicorn hairbands I made last year.

Basically, don't stand still for too long in my house or I might stick a felt flower to you!

Winnie the Pooh Hairbands

My friend recently asked me if I'd make some photo props for her sister's baby shower. Her sister is pregnant with twins!

Having seen my unicorn hairband she asked if I could make something similar but with Winnie the Pooh characters, as this was the theme of the shower.

We decided on making the ears of Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore. I found a pack of hairbands that included yellow, pink, orange and blue which was perfect.

I made paper patterns of the ears and cut them out of felt. I made them so the piece of felt would fold over the hairband.

The ears are pretty simple shapes, with only one or two elements to them. Plus a tuft of Eeyore's hair of course.

If the hairbands were for regular use I'd probably sew the felt together, but since they're for a one off event I decided to just glue them, which worked perfectly well.

Here's a photo of the selfie station my friend set up at the baby shower. Love that hashtag! #twinniethepooh

Pin it!

Novelty Hairbands

It will come as no surprise to you when I say that unicorns are very on trend right now. I've seen a lot of unicorn hairbands complete with horn and ears and always think that it would be fun to make my own, so I did.

Usually this is the sort of thing I would make completely out of felt but since the unicorn horn is special I had to dig through my regular fabric stash until I found this gold and sparkly fabric which, with enough stuffing, stands up on it's own.

I made one as a test and put it on my craft stall a couple of months ago and it was one of the first things to sell! So I bought a pack of hairbands to mass produce ready for Christmas craft fair season.

I also wanted to try some other styles, starting with this cute felt crown. I'm already thinking of different colour combinations.

And a little party hat! I think this could easily be modified especially for Christmas. Red with a white pom pom and trim? Or red and green complete with felt elf ears on the side?

Pearl Ears

Have you noticed that decorative cat ears are now a thing?

Taylor even wears some in her 22 video.

I got the inspiration to make my own from a tutorial on Cut out and Keep.

It's pretty simple really; bead some wire into ears, thread on beads, attach to a hair band by wrapping around ribbon.

It took me ages to find both beads and ribbon that matched and were the right size.

My ear turned out a little wonky but I don't mind.

It adds character.

New skillz

I have learnt a new skill.

Macramé knots.

I learnt it here. 

This is the first bracelet I made using the technique.

For the centre cord I used a piece of black elastic so I wouldn't have to bother with working closures.

This is the set up I use.

The laptop playing 4od is very important.

And you see the green bead? I move it left to right so I don't forget which order I'm knotting, because when I'm watching 4od, it's easy to lose track.

I also tried knotting around a thin metal bangle with beads on the edges, which turned out well.

I think it looks like Christmas.

And I knotted around an elastic hair band which is pretty cool.

Now I have to stop myself from looking at things and wonderful if I could Macramé knot around them.

Friends, I will be cutting back to 2 posts a week for the next for weeks because with my degree show piece being one long project I have less new things to blog about.

Denim Bow

Just when you think I can't make any more bows; boom. Here's one made out of denim.

Which is a tricky fabric since it's so thick.

But I got it to do what I want.

Usually I attach big elastic hair bands to the bows I make but I didn't have one the right colour so I left it for a long time.

And then I had a lightbulb moment.

I put a regular small hair band through the bow and now I can wear it with a ponytail.

Or with a messy bow.

Voila.

And I can also slip the bow onto an existing metal hairband and wear it that way if I feel so inclinded.

All these possibilities just opening up to me. Whoah.

Good news; new hairband

 I made a new hairband.

But what kind of fabric is that?

Let's take a closer look.

It's newspaper print fabric!

I bought some Image Maker and used it to transfer text.

I'm a maverick.

I like that it prints the reverse because it gives the look of news print without having actual readable words, because I wouldn't want people reading my head when I wear the hair band.

Nobody wants that.

The hair band is made the same way as these ones, but with a cute bow for added interest.

Has anyone dabbled with the wonder that is Image Maker?

More hairbands

Things I need more of :

Words on my dissertation.

Things I don't need more of :

Hair bands.

So guess what I did this weekend...

Made more hair bands!

Yay!

Well, assembled more hair bands, rather than 'made'.

I just took some of the butterflies my Mum crocheted and attached them to some new elastic hair bands that I bought.

I've used these butterflies to make necklaces before, some of which you can find in my Etsy shop.

*cough* shameless promotion *cough*

Here and here.

Is ombre hair still on trend?

I hope so, because I'm never on trend but as my dyed hair (that I dyed well over a year ago and was supposed to be semi-permanent!) grows out it's kinda looking that way. Aces!

And welcome to new followers!

And of course hello to y'all who have been with me for longer.

Thanks for being here.

I wish blogger had a better way to reply to comments to we could actually have a proper, like, conversation.

Or as we say in the art school world 'start a dialogue'.

Simple hairbands

I used these discarded ties from a dressing gown and a dress to make some simple headbands. I think they were my sister's, she doesn't know I used them. She will now.

The style is based on some similar ones my Mum made when she was younger.

I could easily go crazy embellishing them, just give me time.

I could definitely see this one with some added bling.

Since the fabric was already in a tube all I had to do was cut a suitable length, fold the ends in and sew the elastic on.

They're a simple way to dress up my short hair.