How to Sew a Terry Cloth Headband

Make one of these terry cloth headbands, to keep your hair out of your way when you’re washing your face, applying makeup, using a face mask or taking a bath. It’s made with a double layer of terry cloth, so it’s super absorbent, and there’s an adjustable hook and loop closure that allows you to customize the fit. These sew up quickly, and make a great gift for women and teen girls.

You can use terry cloth yardage to make your headbands, or cut them out of a towel. One bath towel will make approximately eight headbands, so this is a really inexpensive project.

How to Customize the Fit of Your Headband

I designed these headbands to fit the average woman’s head (22″-23″ diameter). If you need to make yours bigger or smaller, just measure the diameter of your head, and add 3″ to your measurement.

Terrycloth Headband Sewing Tutorial

What You’ll Need:

(1) 7″ x 25″ piece of terry cloth fabric
1-1/2″ wide grosgrain ribbon
(2) 2″ pieces of hook and loop strip
Thread
Scissors
Sewing pins or sewing clips
A sewing machine (This is the machine that I have)

Optional (but nice to have):

An air or water-soluble marker or hera marker
A rotary cutter (This is the one I have)
A self-healing cutting mat
A flexible measuring tape

What You Do:

Cut a strip of terry cloth to size.

Fold it in half lengthwise, and secure with pins or sewing clips.

To create a curve on each end of the headband, trace around a drinking glass.

Then, cut out your curves.

Sew a 1/8″ seam all the way around the headband, to tack the two layers together.

To create a binding for the edge of the headband, fold grosgrain ribbon lengthwise, so that the back of the ribbon overhangs the front by 1/16″. Iron in the crease (on a low temperature setting), or finger-press it.

Then, pin, or clip, the ribbon over the raw edge of the terry cloth.

To bend the ribbon around the curved ends, just add a few pleats.

When you make it back around to where you started, cut the ribbon so that it overlaps the other end of the ribbon by a few inches. Then, fold the end under, so there’s nothing to fray, and pin it in place.

Flip your terry cloth headband over to make sure the binding looks good on both sides. Then, zig-zag stitch around the ribbon to secure it to the headband.