yo-yo headbands

Look at this face! 

That's the face of a little girl who just had her very first haircut.  (That's her say-cheese-I'm-smiling-for-the-camera face.  I can't get that girl to smile with her eyes open unless I catch her unaware.)  Yep, that's right.  She's almost 2 1/2, and she just had her first haircut.  I was letting her go for the wild-look . . . until now. 

It was here . . . somewhere between the first snip and the last smile, that I was finally inspired to start the sixth craft till Christmas.  Monkey was so excited to pick out her very own hair accesories.  She picked out one pink ponytail holder, one purple ponytail holder and an orange headband.  Actually, I think she would have picked out a few more things if we wouldn't have cut her off after three.  

So . . . here in the middle of July, I'm finally announcing my sixth craft till Christmas . . . hair accessories!  I'll be doing a variety of hair accessories for the next few weeks and some sort of hair accessory organizer.  

I'm starting off with an easy yo-yo button headband.  (I made two that they could wear now and I'll be making a few more to stash away for Christmas.)

Yo-Yo Button Headband

What you'll need:

-fabric scraps and felt scraps

-buttons

-flat elastic** or flat elastic headbands

-embroidery thread

**You can either buy your own flat elastic headbands or sew a few up quickly by cutting the appropriate size of flat elastic.  Overlapping the ends to form a loop and sewing back and forth a few times across the joined ends.

What you'll do:

1)  Cut out two circles of varying colors.  One circle will be bigger than the other.  I used can lids (because I've been collecting those things like crazy since Iron Crafter).

2)  Hand sew a long stitch around the edge of the little circle with the embrodiery thread.  Then pull the thread tight to form the yo-yo and tie a small knot.  Do the same thing with the big circle, but don't cut the thread or take the needle off the thread.

3)  Stack the yo-yos by pushing the needle still attached to the big yo-yo into the center of the little yo-yo.  Then slide the button on to the needle and thread stacking it onto the two yo-yos.

4)  Push the needle and thread back down through another hole on the button, both yo-yos and then through an elastic headband.  Now sew all these layers together like you are sewing on a button.

5)  To finish off, push needle and thread up through elastic and the larger yo-yo.  Pull needle out from the center of the big yo-yo.  Wrap it around the center of the yo-yo and push needle and thread through fabric and tie a quick knot.  Cut thread close to center of yo-you so it can't be seen.

Done! 

Here's one done with felt.  Rather than two yo-yos I used one yo-yo as the base and cut felt shapes as the middle layer.  The technique is exactly the same though. 

Super easy and can be done without a sewing machine . . . what could be better?

Hair accessory month continues tomorrow with my guest post over at Fireflies and Jellybeans.  I will be sharing my ruffled ribbon headband over there.  I'm so nervous but I'm . . . 

craft on!