A Tutorial Tsunami means lots of learning, lots of fun and good times for all. A bunch of us pals (we call ourselves the Art Sparks) got together and decided to start a tsunami of sorts. Jane LaFazio, Diana Trout and I will pack the snowball and get it rolling. Oh wait! I am mixing metaphors!

Jane will be doing a machine felting tutorial and Diana will be guiding us through an adventure of BIG art making. From here we will pass the baton to Lyric Kinard and Alisa Burke who will be posting tomorrow, (Thursday) and they will pass the baton to... Well, you will just have to wait and see!

So here goes:

You will need:

Cotton cloth prepared to dye and soda soaked (I made a fat quarter for the purpose of this tute. I have left overs!) :)
Dye concentrate
Freezer paper and iron
scissors
Plexiglas
Sewing machine (regular and rolled hem foot)
Elastic
Thread
Iron
pins

Soda Soak solution: 1/2C. Soda Ash to 1 gallon water
Dye concentrate: 2 tbs dye Powder to 2C water
Thickener 11Tbs to 2C water

Further explanations of all of the proceeding information can be found within pages 17 through 33 of my book, Inspired to Quilt.

Part One:

1. Fold freezer paper (nice action shot, huh?)

2. Draw out a simple design.

3. Cut the design out of the freezer paper. Iron in a pleasing pattern on your soda soaked cloth.

4. Mix up some thickened dye.

5. Spread it out evenly on a Plexiglas sheet.

6. Apply cloth to dye.

7. Press cloth into dye, a brayer would be useful here.

8. Lift cloth away and batch. Wash.

9. ops! Blurry. Sorry!

HeadbandPart1.pdf

Part Two:

1. Cut a 14x2" strip of cloth. Iron raw edges toward center of the strip. (*see step 9)

2. Sew closed.

3. Thread an 8 inch length of 1/4" elastic through the sewn strip.

4. Cut a 12.5 x 6.5" square of cloth, I will demonstrate a rolled hem, though you could try other methods if you do not have this foot.

5. Sew a 1" length at 1/4" from raw edge. Leave the tail; you will use this to guide the cloth into the foot.

6. Holding the tail, draw a 'wave' of cloth into the foot. The 63 foot for the Bernina machine will turn about a 1/4" of cloth into a tight rolls as it sews the cloth in place. You'll want to feed the 'wave' about a 1/2" of cloth just forward of the foot.

7. Once both of the long edges are roll hemmed (or your choice of hem) baste the other two raw edges with a long stitch length.

8. Gather each of the two ends up to create two highly ruffled edges.

Headband construction tip: When you join the elastic strip to the headband part put right sides together with the headband strip on the bottom and the elastic band on top and ready to go thru the machine, allow the narrow hemmed edges to wrap around and on top of the elastic strip slightly and sew in place. When it is turned, the ragged end of the seam allowance will be concealed and you can then top stitch across the end. It will be very professional looking.

9. Following the above headband construction tips, pin both sides, sew in place, turn and sew again, this area will get a fair amount of stress as you pull the headband on and off your head.

Zig Zag the raw edges together. Repeat for other edge.

Complete the opposite side too.

*All of these measurements can and should be fine-tuned to fit your head or that of your child or girlfriend. If you would like to do this, I suggest making the elastic and tube longer strip longer, say, 18x2 and basting the opposite side in the proper place to see if it fits you properly. Trim away the excess before completing your headband.

This headband is a great way to enjoy having the top down on your convertible, taking a fast ferry to Provincetown, or just plain keeping cool.

HeadBandPart2.pdf
***ETA: This is an updated version of Headband Tutorial Part 2***

Watch this video for inspiration. And better still, subscribe to my You Tube Channel and get automatic emails when I add new and exciting content.

I really hope you enjoyed this tute, downloaded the 2 PDF's, and now go check out Jane Lafazio and Diana Trout's Blogs.