Headbands from silk scraps

I have made in just a week, since I came up with the idea, about seven headbands from silk squares for myself. I’m addicted to it. Because obviously I need one to match every imaginable outfit. Which shouldn’t be too many though, considering how I wear only black, gray, white and the occasional navy blue and fuchsia. But then with the headbands I can go crazy with color. A little bit.

I had a quite large collection of small silk squares (with sides around 20 inches) acquired some time ago. I’ve stopped buying them when I realized that I like a larger scarf for headwraps, so that it covers my head completely and even forms a nice bun at the back. I also couldn’t properly use the small squares as headbands just by tying them at the back, because they would keep sliding off. Maybe my head is a weird shape or my hair is too slippery, I don’t know, but tying the scarves around my head never worked for me.

So the silk squares just sat there in a bag in my closet neglected in spite of all their beauty, until one day, when I put on a thick headband of my daughter’s to get the hair out of my eyes, and I realized how comfortable it felt. Because, yes, I have another problems: even headbands generally give me a headache and I can’t wear them for a long time. But this thick headband with a bit of elastic at the back felt great. That was when I started thinking of making more grow-up version of headbands from silk squares.

I looked for tutorials online, but couldn’t find anything satisfactory. So what I had to come up with my own “design”: cut the silk scarf in half, sew it on the wrong side into a tube, turn it inside out, press it so the seam doesn’t show on the outside (I keep it in the middle on the inner side of the headband). Fold the edges of the tube inside, so they don’t show, then put one end of the elastic inside the tube, positioning it on top of the seam, then fold that end of the tube toward the elastic and sew it in. After sewing the elastic in the other side also, you’re done!

I’m sure that my attempt to explain the obvious has amused you enough. Laugh all you want, but I thought this was a brilliant idea. Until you make one of these you won’t know what you’re missing. The greatest benefit for me, besides finding a good use for things already in my closet, is that I’ll be able to wear my scarves all summer, which, I must confess, makes me kind of happy. Why don’t you wrap some happiness around you head too?