Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? I'm Not a Hoarder, I'm Well-Prepared!

Hi, all!

Have you checked your calendar lately?  Yes, it's actually Friday - even though the days seem to run together, don't they!  And that means it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on - are you ready?  Let's get started!!

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First things first - today is this beautiful girl's eighth birthday!  Certainly a strange time to celebrate it, but celebrate it we will. She's got her mom making her homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, Lilli has worked out a special outfit, hair and makeup for her for the day, and Nancy raided my craft stash to get all kinds of things to decorate the house to make it a very special day.  So let's give her a big whoop whoop!

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And next, on the sewing front - Thursday morning a friend texted me this picture and asked if I could make her 35 of them.  Well, ordinarily, no problem - I could go to Walmart, pick up ready-made headbands, and easily add the buttons.  Or I could go to Joann's, buy some knit fabric, make the headbands and add buttons.  But these aren't ordinary times, are they?  So I did some digging around on the internet, found a few video tutorials that I watched, and started looking through the stash.  

One of the many huge tubs I hauled upstairs to my quilt studio contained pieces left over from all the t-shirt quilts I have made in the past few years.  Aha!  T-shirt material is knit fabric!  So I pulled some out and measured - yes!  I can get two headbands out of a wide shirt back.  Hooray!  And here's what I ended up with...

The nurses say that these help them, because their ears are getting raw from the elastic behind them.  This way, all the pressure is on the button and none on their ear!  In case you want to make some of your own, here's a quickie tutorial...

Start with a piece of fabric around 7.5" x 21".  I think you could do it slightly shorter than that, but this is the size I used.  

Fold it in half lengthwise, and starting about 1-1.5" from the end of the strip, stitch the full length, stopping about 1-1.5" from the other end.  I suggest backstitching at beginning and end.

Turn the tube right side out.

Match up the right sides of each end of the tube, and stitch them together all the way across.  (I only pinned here to show you what I was doing - I just held it together and stitched.)  Be sure to backstitch at both ends of your seam.

Here's what it looks like after stitching.  Pull the sides of the hair band and the seam will pull to the inside.

Now take the opening, be sure that there is 1/4" on each edge turned inside, and pin the opening shut.  

Stitch very close to the edge, being sure that you have caught the edges on both sides in the stitching. Backstitch at the beginning and end of your stitching.

You can see the stitching here.  Yes, it shows, but it will be against the head under the hair, so it won't show when worn.

Now take the headband and center the long seam all the way around.  Centering the cross seam, press the headband so that the edges are sharp and so that you have a crease on each end.

Using the crease as a marker, lay a large button (I used 1-inch buttons from my stash) centered on the crease.   You can use the zigzag stitch on your sewing machine to sew the buttons on quickly and securely.  Drop the feed dogs, take off the foot, and roll the needle down by hand into the first hole.  DROP THE PRESSER FOOT!  (It makes a huge mess if you don't - don't ask me how I know...)  Hand crank the needle up and see if the stitch width is correct to move it into the next hole.  If not, adjust it as needed.  Once you have the correct width, hold the button down and stitch across 5-6 times for a 4-hole button, 10-12 times for a 2-hole button.  If you are using a 4-hole button, lift the presser foot, slide the button up slightly, and using the wheel, crank the needle down to be sure it goes into the hole properly.  Repeat the process to sew in those holes.   Repeat on the other side of the headband.

Tie the loose threads top and bottom and cut them off close.  Add a dot of fray check if you want.

And voila!  You have a very comfortable nurse's headband!  Super simple, and they go very quickly in production line fashion.  I cut out 35, stitched all the tubes, then turned them right side out, and then stitched the closure.  Now all I have to do is dig through my button box....

...to find 35 sets of matching 1" buttons.  I don't think I'm likely to run out of buttons, do you?

So - - - can I get a whoop whoop?

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And now it's your turn!

What's got you whooping it up this week?

What's making you do a little happy dance?

Share!  We want to dance right along with you,

And it's always more fun to dance with friends!

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah