diy: shimmer & lace headband

another headband for this week’s diy. i really love the look of teal & gold together and thought that a simple lace headband would be great for a date night or coffee sipping afternoon. full on diy after the jump.

supplies:
+ lace. i found mine (white) for a dollar/yard. not too shabby.
+ elastic (black). for this project i used 1/4in. you can use round elastic too. whatever you happen to have.
+ dye. your favorite (or cheapest) brand. didn’t want white lace, so i decided to dye it the color i wanted.
+ ribbon, the same width as your lace. i like shear ribbons for this, but a solid or pattern would work too.
+ scissors.
+ hot (craft, safe for fabric) glue gun. i thought i’d use a needle and
thread at first, but it turned out to be a no-sew project. yay!

the first step is to dye your lace. i dyed the entire yard, but you can dye just the section you want… follow the specified instructions for you brand of dye. definitely use gloves & salt in the mix. also make sure to thoroughly hand wash (carefully) the lace once it is dyed. i like the look of colored lace and was wanting a bold color, but feel free to leave the lace white, use beige or black lace, or even dye it a mute or pastel tone. & yes, that’s my beach sand castle building bucket i’m using to dye the lace…

next, measure out the desired length of the headband. i used a headband i already had as a guide. cut a piece of ribbon and lace to that size (maybe a smidgen longer) and a piece of the elastic for the back of the headband, with a 1/2 in allowance on each end.

i found some really tacky gold, shear ribbon in my mom’s ribbon box. it looked great underneath the dark teal lace. i thought about sewing the lace on, but figured i’d give the hot glue gun a shot. i made a thin line of glue along the top edge of the ribbon and attached the lace (i did this in inch increments so as to be as neat as possible). i also glued the bottom scalloped edges of my lace in place at the ends only and left the mid section as is. all that is left is to attach the elastic. turn the ribbon/lace right side down and attach one end of the elastic. i simply hot glued around 1/2 inch of the elastic onto the back of the ribbon. i then dabbed a bit of glue onto the top of the elastic and folded over the edges of the headband onto it, creating a nice finished look (sorry, no photo). repeat for the other end & that’s it. easy. just remember to keep that elastic from twisting on you. you also want it to stretch a bit when you put it on.

dyeing the lace was the most time consuming part, but quite fun. you can even tie dye a shirt or something in the process.

my sister happens to be sipping some tea in this photo, she’s not
feeling well. oh, and that light flare is legit. love it when it
happens & actually looks semi-decent.

props: pugly pixel’s blog photo templates. yay.