Bandana Headbands In Four Easy Steps!

Use inexpensive bandanas and your sewing machine to make these festive bandana headbands. Customize them with any colors you like – so fun!

Skills Required: Beginner. You’ll be doing some very basic straight sewing, or there’s a no-sew option. If you’re a beginning crafter, you’ll be fine with this project.

Bandanas are always a hot summer trend, especially for 4th of July. Red, white, and blue ones seem to be out of stock in all of my local craft stores! I eventually tracked some down and made these fun red, white, and blue bandana headbands that are a great 4th of July craft.

These DIY hair accessories are so easy to make, and you only need fabric bandanas and elastic (plus some basic supplies you already have on hand). You can sew them or use hot glue to make them no-sew. Fun for older kids and grown-ups too!

DIY Bandana Headband

To make these bandana headbands, you’ll need:

• Red, white, and blue bandanas (one of each)
• 1/2 inch wide elastic
• Thread and a sewing machine OR a hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Plastic ruler
• Scissors

Cut a 3-inch wide strip from each bandana using scissors and a ruler. This part is really easy to do with a rotary cutter, if you happen to have one.

You’ll end up with three strips for each headband. Fold one end of each strip to make a “W” shape.

Stack all of the strips together and place one end of the elastic in the middle, just as I’ve done in the photo below.

It doesn’t necessarily matter the order of your strip colors, as they are all going to be braided together. I wouldn’t worry about it.

Flatten everything together with your hand and sew through the end with your sewing machine. It was really easy for me to just hold the pieces while making the bandana headbands; pinning wouldn’t taken too long!

Or maybe I’m just impatient.

Either way, use pins if you need to. And here’s the best part if you’re looking for a no-sew option. Simply glue it all together with a hot glue gun and glue sticks, one layer at a time.

Braid the fabric together. Make the braid looser if you want a bigger/thicker headband, and tighter if you want a smaller/skinnier headband.

I loosely tied the elastic around the back of a chair to keep everything steady while I braided. I found this was the easiest way to make my bandana headbands.

The length of your elastic will depend on the size of your bandanas and the size of your head. Best to try the headband on and trim your elastic to fit.

Sew the trimmed end of elastic to the other end of the bandana headband like you did before.

That’s all there is to making a bandana headband. Easy, cute, and just in time for 4th of July!

---

If you are looking for another fun bandana craft for the fourth, check out this girls’ skirt.