Embroidered Hair Band

I made this hair band as a birthday gift for my sister. Her birthday is actually today, so, "Happy 6th Birthday!" to her. :)

(Picture used with permission.)

Isn't she so cute! She has such lovely curly hair, but, she gets really frustrated by it being in her way. I thought maybe the hair band would help her a little.

I did some modeling with it just to get pictures. And, I did take LOTS of pictures!

I would like to make a few more of these hair bands in the future. I made this design up as I went, so the pictures will help me replicate it someday.

I have been wearing more hair accessories lately. I style my hair very plainly. Almost every single day of my life I put hair in a bun, and that is all I do.

I put my hair in a bun every day because it is easy, convenient, and protects my hair, and, since I want to be able to sell it for a high price I want it to stay in good condition.

I have found adding accessories to my plain style has been a fun way to express some of my personality. I think I would use an embroidered piece like this pretty frequently.

The design was inspired by Mexican and Hungarian styles of embroidery (what a combination! Right?). I did several searches on Pinterest that gave me some good ideas.

The flowers are comprised mostly from satin stitch with a backstitch boarder. I used 3 strands of floss for the satin stitch as well as the backstitch.

The stems between the larger flowers is a stem stitch using 3 strands of floss while the smaller stems are backstitching using 2 stands of floss. The leaves are some type of herring bone stitch, I believe. I did a blanket stitch detail around some of the leaves using just 1 strand if thread.

I used an unbleached linen to make the band from. I liked the end product, but it would be easier to embroider finer details with a more tightly woven fabric.

After I stitched the design I sewed the back on by putting the right sides together, adding a layer between the front and back to act as interfacing, stitching with a 1/4" seam allowance down the long edges, and then turning it right side out.

I decided to make the tie straps from the linen, as opposed to using a ribbon, because the linen would offer more grip and be more likely to stay tied.

The overall length is slightly over 30 inches. I think it is a good length. It was not hard to tie on nor was there a lot of excess.

When I finish assembling the band I did a boarder stitch through all the layers to add visual completeness as well as to keep the casing from rolling.