HOW TO MAKE A BEAN SPROUT HEADBAND

 

Well BANAs, I promised I’d show you how to make your very own bean sprout headband so here I am, with my very own step-by-step tutorial. Yippee! Now go get your crafty caps on and let’s make a headband!

WHAT YOU NEED:

• 1 headband
• 2 pieces of green felt
• a good pair of scissors
• a pencil (I prefer a soft-leaded pencil but you can use whatever you have)
• fabric glue
• a large eyed needle
• green embroidery thread
• some good tunes to jam to (preferably B1A4 since, you know, we’re making a bean sprout headband)

STEP 1: DRAW YOUR LEAVES

Take your two pieces of felt and place them on top of each other, wrong sides together, and using your pencil, draw the outline of your leaves on one side of the felt. Don’t worry if your leaves aren’t perfectly symmetrical, they don’t have to be. That’s the beauty of hand-crafted things, imperfections aren’t flaws, they’re character.

STEP 2: CUT OUT THE LEAVES

Yeah, I realize this is pretty much a no-brainer but still, you can’t make a headband if you don’t cut those suckers out so get to it!

STEP 3: GLUE THE LEAVES TOGETHER

Separate your two pieces of felt just long enough to apply a thin ribbon of fabric glue along the edge of one of your cut out leaves and then put the other piece back on top and smush the two together. Whatever you do, don’t glue in the middle of your leaves! You only want to glue around the edges so you can poof the middle out once the glue has dried.

STEP 4: WAIT PATIENTLY FOR THE GLUE TO DRY

 

Depending on your glue, this could take anywhere from a few hours to over 24, so have patience and you will be rewarded.

OR…

You can do what I do and move straight on to…

STEP 5: EMBROIDERY FOR ZOMBIES

If, like me, you think gluing two pieces of felt together is just too plain and boring, you can take that little extra step and add a simple blanket stitch around the edge of your freshly glued leaves. This is a totally optional step but it does add a cute touch and it’s super easy to do so why not go ahead and give it a try? For those of you who have no idea how to do a blanket stitch, I’ll show you… Tell you? I have no idea! What is this I’m doing anyway? Anyhoo…

HOW TO BLANKET STITCH

1. Thread your needle with two strands of embroidery thread (which means you’re only going to use 2 of the 6 strands that are used to make up a typical piece of embroidery thread)
2. Tie at knot at the end of your thread and trim off the extra, you don’t want that flapping around, getting in the way of your work.
3. Open up one tip of your leaves and poke the needle through from the inside, out so that the knot is on the inside, sandwiched between the two pieces of felt.
4. Loop your needle around to the backside of both leaves and come back through both pieces where the thread is coming through only the top piece.
5. Before you pull the thread tight, bring your needle through the loop of thread and then pull.
6. Move your needle a little way down the leaf and do it all over again.
7. Keep going until you’re right back where you started.
8. Make your final stitch through your first one and finish it with a knot. Trim thread and…

Voila! Cute little leaves!

STEP 6: FLOOF THE LEAVES

Now that your leaves are all cute, you’re going to want to floof them out a bit, to give them their puffy, three-dimensional look. (This is why you didn’t want to glue your leaves completely together in Step 4, you wanted to be able to make your leaves nice and floofy. And yes, I just like using the world floofy… It makes me think of Leo’s hair… Oops! Wrong band! Sorry! Moving on…)

STEP 7: ATTACH LEAVES TO HEADBAND

To attach your leaves to the headband you’re first going to need to cut a small strip of felt from the scraps you have left over. Use that piece of felt to wrap around both the headband and the center of your leaves. Make sure you pull this tiny piece of felt tight enough to keep your leaves in place. The last thing you want is your leaves getting droopy because you didn’t secure them tight enough. Once your leaves are right where you want them, pick up your handy-dandy needle and thread and sew the loose end of that little piece of fabric, to wherever it ends up.

Note: If you’re like me, you may spend a ridiculous amount of time agonizing over getting the end of your little scrap of fabric exactly in the center of the under side of your headband. If this is you, please stop here and take a moment to breathe. Now, come back because I have a simple solution for you. Don’t worry about where the end of your fabric stops. Just go ahead and sew that annoying little booger down wherever it stops. When it’s secure. cut out another piece of fabric and wrap it over the first one. With the leaves already in place, you don’t have to worry about them sliding all over the place while you sew. Just line up your second strip of fabric wherever you want it and stitch away. Problem solved! Woot!

STEP 8: STITCH THE LEAVES TOGETHER

By this point, I’m sure you’ve noticed your leaves are a bit floppy but all it takes is three more blanket stitches and your leaves will be as perky as a Crayon Pop video. Woohoo! All you have to do is pinch your leaves together as close to the headband as possible and then stitch away. Like I said, about three stitches up is about all it takes and if you match up the existing stitches, you won’t even notice they’re there. Daebak!

STEP 9: ADMIRE YOUR HANDIWORK

That’s right BANA, you’ve just made yourself an adorable bean sprout headband! Yippee! Go ahead! Try it on! See how fantabulous you look! Aww! You’re so cute! Now wear that headband to the B1A4 concert nearest you and show those boys just how much you love them!