The headbands continue

I wrote about The Great Headband Project of 2014 that was my first headband post. Today is the second. (Later, I wrote a third headband post here.)

In comments (on that post) Jen left links to headbands made with ribbon. Link one. Link two. Silky or grosgrain type ribbon on the top for decoration, velvet ribbon on the under side to prevent slipping, elastic in the back to hold it in place.

7/8" ribbon

I tried a couple and the girls loved them.

My girls have smooth/silky type of hair. We have great difficulty with things (headbands, barrettes, etc) sliding. It wouldn't seem like velvet ribbon stay put in silky hair, but it really does.







So, I started on headband project #2 -

We obtained the circumference needed for each girl (I was making for middle, youngest, middle's best friend, then another of middle's friends who happened to see the headbands and wanted some too . . .) by tying regular headbands (from my original post) on their heads, slipping off, measuring.

I discovered, while making ribbon headbands, there can be a half an inch difference in circumference of ribbon headbands, depending on whether I take an inside measurement or an outside measurement. This must be due to the thickness of the layers.  So I learned to slip the ruler inside to get an exact circumference as I made each one.

Both of my girls needed 21" (inside measurement) headbands. Middle's first friend needed 19" (she is from the Far East and very tiny). Middle's second friend needed 21" also.

As I mentioned, I tried a couple headbands (before buying bulk supplies). To see if I could do it. To see if the girls loved them. To work out the whole measurement thing. Really important, ribbon is expensive.

The original set of instructions (link two at top of this post) used two different widths of ribbon (wide silk, narrower velvet). I used the same width for each headband. I made some headbands with 7/8" ribbon (silk and velvet). I made other headbands with 1 1/2" widths (silk and velvet).

I used 3/8" elastic on the 7/8" ribbon and 1/2" elastic on the 1 1/2" ribbon. I used white and black and nude elastic which I bought at JoAnns with 40% off coupons. 

I am on JoAnn's email mailing list. They send a couple sets of coupons every week. I also am on their snail mail list. And they put coupons in newspaper. They allow multiple coupons in each checkout. I bought a few things each trip. EVERYTHING I bought was with 40% coupon.

I bought all my silky and grosgrain ribbon (washable, NO wire) at JoAnns (using 40% off coupons on each spool). 

I ordered all my velvet ribbon from jpribbons on ebay because I wanted matching colors. JoAnn's has a small amount of black velvet ribbon only (at my store).  On ebay, ordering from jpribbons, click the "request total from seller" (top of shopping cart, in tiny print) about making shipping come out right if ordering multiple kinds/colors/widths. Here is her 1 1/2" velvet ribbon. Here is the 7/8" velvet ribbon. She and I chatted on email about colors (she carries a lot of browns) too, she is very helpful.

The instructions (links at top of this post) fused the two ribbons together when sewing (to prevent slipping and to hold in place because they used two different widths of ribbon). I did not find that necessary (at all). I have been sewing for a very long time. I used the same widths of ribbon.

The instructions sealed the ends of the ribbons by singe-ing.  I cut them with pinking shears and then zigzagged the ends (to prevent fraying and to hold the elastic). I also turned the cut edges of the ribbons in/folded them under, I am not sure the instructions did this.

The instructions used precise measurements. With turning the edges under and the slippery-ness of the silk ribbon, I did not rely on the accurate-ness of my cut measurements. I cut everything carefully. But slipped the ruler in, before sewing the second end of the elastic (closing the circle), for a final measurement. The final measurement for my girls (and one extra friend) was 10 1/2" (21" folded in half measuring on the inside). And for middle's best friend it was 9 1/2" (19"). If I measured on the outside, the inside was actually a full 1/2" smaller which made the headbands feel too tight on all of them.

I made a sign and tacked it on the bulletin board above my sewing machine so I did not get confused as I sewed:

Middle and youngest and middle's other friend
21" finished
10 1/2" folded in half
Cut ribbon at 20"


Middle's best friend
19" finished
9 1/2" folded in half
Cut ribbon at 18"






Yes, I am visual too. I took step by step pictures for you.

Two ribbons, wrong sides together, stitching down sides.

Here you can see the two wrong sides, together.

Here you can see the edges folded under to seal the pinked ends. I didn't actually pin as I sewed, but I pinned here so the ends would stay under so you could see.

I stitched all the way to the end and then reversed stitching to lock

I then slipped the end of the elastic between the two ribbons

I put the needle down into the ribbons, lifted the presser foot, and turned the ribbon so I could first straight stitch over the end, holding the elastic in place and then zigzagged over the end several times.

Here is the zigzagging (hard to see)

Then I sewed down the long, second side of the headband, turning the edges under when I got to the other end

I then took the headband out of the machine to do an inside measurement (9 1/2" for middle's friend on this one). I then cut the elastic, pushed the end down between the two ribbons and sewed the other end shut with first a straight stitch and then a zigzag stitch.

Right, front side of finished headband

Back, right side of headband

Close up of elastic on back, right side of headband

Wrong, back side of finished headband

Close up of the wrong, back side of an end. All my girls (receiving these headbands) have long hair. The elastic does not show when they wear them. 

1 1/2" ribbon, 1/2" black elastic

7/8" ribbon, 3/8" white elastic

7/8" ribbon, 3/8" black elastic

1 1/2" ribbon, 1/2" white and nude/flesh elastic

Vision Boards

Jennette Fulda (formerly known as PastaQueen) wrote a post about a Vision Board Party she attended earlier this winter.


Really fun (I think) that this is an annual event for this group of women. This would make a great non-food, traditional, holiday activity for an extended family too. Perhaps New Year's Day during all the games (for example).






If you remember middle is a RA in college this year. Part of her job is to have activities for her floor. She and the other RA's usually double up on these programs so it is half the work and a good turn out of attendees.


As soon as I read Jennette's post, I knew it was something middle would love. I wrote to Jennette to see if middle could borrow Jennette's Vision Board picture for middle's announcement signs. She said "yes". Since we have a colored printer, I printed a stack of these pictures so all middle had to do was add the date, time, place.

Youngest and I, on one of the few warm days, went dumpster diving for magazines (for middle who was at college and had no access to magazines). Believe it or not, I mentioned this to another mom, and she just stared at me. It turned out that when her kids needed pictures, she went and bought magazines for them to dissect. .  .


Our recycling center is very clean. Magazines (and the like) are put in two large bins. The bins are about about 4' tall and probably 4' across both ways. So these are huge bins. Luckily they were mostly full, that day, so it was easy to dig. If they had been nearly empty, youngest would have had to climb IN them to reach magazines for us.

We had to dig through a lot of catalogs and phone books, but found a wide variety of really great magazines. There was a horse one, athletic, house, gardening, etc. We collected several dozen magazines that day. Middle is actually going to keep this collection so as a teacher she has magazines for kids to use for projects.

I had a 20% off coupon and also a $5 coupon for our local art store. I bought 12" x 18" heavy weight tag board for middle. This is heavier than construction paper but thinner than poster board. In my opinion the 12" x 18" size was perfect because it made the project doable in one sitting and is a nice size for hanging on a college door or bulletin board.





Her dorm would have picked up the cost of the paper, but then the leftovers would have been theirs. I bought a mega pack for $8 (with my coupons) and then she had lots left for other projects.

This is not middle's board. It belongs to a friend. Middle's (still in progress) is very similar. They decided to just use words. The friend finds/cuts words and middle arranges/glues. They just happened to finish this one first.

Here is Jen talking about Vision Boards (2013).

Here is Karen (2012).

Here is Jane on her Inspiration Board (2011).

Jen's Gwynnie Bee (clothing rental service) information

I apologize if this is a repeat. I thought I had already posted on this topic, but when I searched, I could not find it.

Jen belongs to a clothing rental service called Gwynnie Bee.

She has written about Gwynnie Bee several times. 

That link will pull up all her Gwynnie Bee posts with the most recent on top. Scroll down to read her previous Gwynnie Bee posts.  I would suggest reading all her posts. She and I also chatted in the comments attached to those posts.

Jen chooses which outfits interest her, and they send a set number to her. If the items do not fit or she does not like them, she returns them and they send her a different thing from her list immediately.

I plugged in my information (email, etc) on Gwynnie Bee and that got me free access to their site. It was very interesting. They are geared toward dress up and work clothes. They supply mostly larger sizes. There are lots of clothing/style pictures from their customers and their plus size models.

I can see this working for a lot of women - People steadily losing weight who want a variety of clothes without investing in sizes that will only fit for a short time. Women wanting to try a wide variety of styles to see what works on their body and with the rest of the clothes in their closet. Women who do not have access to larger sizes in their area. Working women who need a larger wardrobe. Women who need special occasion dresses. My understanding is these rental clothes can also be purchased (at a discount because they are used).

When I was pregnant with my oldest, and working, I belonged to a maternity rental clothing service. It was locally owned. I think I had 5 work outfits at a time. They did all laundry. If my belly outgrew something, I could trade it in at any time. Otherwise I traded clothes every other week (if I remember correctly). They had a wide variety of choices. It worked great for me. When business casual became more common, maybe 20 years ago, the local maternity clothing rental place went out of business.