Headcovering Tutorial

Hi all! I have been asked by a couple of different ladies to share my head covering pattern that I use. Now, I am pretty new to head covering, I just started when I got married in January. My first thought about what to use as a headcovering was a wide fabric headband. However I, personally, do not like headbands, they give me headaches and feel like they are going to crush my skull. I took this into consideration when I order my first headcovering and I bought a style that had ties where I could control how tight it was on my head and I love it.  I really like having different options to wear, but I couldn't justify buying more when I had a perfectly good one to wear. I was talking one Sunday to a friend who covers as well, trying to figure out different options for headcoverings, and she suggested that I make my own. Now, I love to sew and make quite a few of my own clothes, but the thought of making my own headcovering really hadn't entered my mind! So, I went home and went through my stash of fabric and found a fun multi-colored knit fabric that I had intended to use to make a dress, but that project flopped, so the fabric was just sitting in my bin, waiting to be used. I love to wear bright colored clothing, it makes me really happy and brings a smile to my face, so I thought, well, why not use this fun fabric to make a headcovering? I know some people are not comfortable wearing brightly colored things, and that's alright! In reality you can make any colored headcovering you want! I have since made one out of an old tee shirt that I was going to throw away. It doesn't really matter what you make your covering out of. I like using some sort of fabric that has a little bit of stretch to it, but you can make it out of any kind of fabric you want to. I made this pattern from studying the headcovering that I bought, mentally deconstructing it and coming up with my own  measurements that I thought would work and giving it a try! My first one turned out pretty well, the second, a little better, and the third (and the one that I took pictures of for this post) turned out the best, mainly cause I took my time with the folding process. I did take a lot of pictures, so hopefully that will help show/explain what I am doing. So, off we go to make a headcovering!

This is the headcovering I based my pattern off of.

Supplies you will need: Scissors, pins, sewing needles, thread, some sort of measuring tape or ruler and fabric. I also have a rotary cutter and cutting mat, I find that using the rotary cutter to cut your fabric you get cleaner and more even lines, but scissors will work just as well.  

I am going to be making the covering 17" long and 9" wide, I laid out my fabric length wise and cut it at the 17" mark on my board. If you don't have a board, just use your measuring tape and make several marks going down your fabric with a washable fabric marker at the 17" line and then use scissors to cut the fabric along the line you made. 

   

We have the length all cut out now, so I folded the fabric in half to make it easier to cut the width. 

Since I didn't have any straight edges for my width, I trimmed fabric from both ends, making my width 9" in total. Again, if you are using scissors, use your measuring tape to mark 9" and cut accordingly. 

Now for the ties. Make two of them, both 10" long and 3" wide. 

We have all our pieces: the headcovering, and two ties!

For the ties: fold one tie in half, right sides together and pin. Note, you don't have to pin if you don't want to, however things go better if you do (I may, or may not have forgone pinning my first tie and kinda regretted it, so I made sure I pinned my second tie).

Once you have folded your tie in half, right sides together, you are now going to stitch the sides together approximately a 1/4" away from the edge. Make sure to leave one of the short sides unsewn so you can flip your tie right-side out.

Both ties are sewn, time to flip them right-side! 

Now you have two ties all completed and it's time to move on the headcovering part.

Now comes the more complicated part: we have to fold the fabric. To start the folding process, lay the fabric, right side down, and fold over about a 1/2" of the fabric on both of the long sides and pin. I only show the folding over of the one side, but go ahead and fold and pin the far side just like you folded and pinned the side closest to you as well. 

Pinning is VERY important!

I'm not sure how best to describe the folding process to you, but once you have done the first little fold, start folding (kinda like you are making a paper fan) every 1" or so (it doesn't have to be perfect), pinning the layers together at you go.

  

 This is how both sides should look in the end, after you have folded and pinned all your fabric.

Time to assemble! Carefully unpin one side of your headcovering and grab a tie. 

You can see all the layers of folded fabric. 

Find where the middle layer is and carefully fold back.

Insert the unsewn side of one tie.  

Carefully fold your covering up again so you have all the layers once more with the tie sandwiched in between. Pin in place and repeat the unfolding and sandwiching with the other side and tie. 

Time to sew it all together! Sew about 1/4"-1/2" away from the edge.

One side done, time to do the other!

This is how it should look when you have both sides sewn. 

Time to flip it right side!

Finished!!

 Note: If you would like you can hem your fabric before hand. Knit fabric doesn't really fray at all so I haven't done any hemming before hand. However you might want to consider hemming if you are using cotton fabric or something that frays really easy.

 I hope this tutorial has been easy to follow. I would love to see pictures of any headcoverings you make! If you have any questions, leave me a comment below!

~Ashly