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How To Make Baby Headbands + Sizing Chart

Making your own baby headbands is really easy and so much fun! You can create so many cute styles for babies and toddlers from big flower headbands to petite accessories. In this tutorial, I will show you how to make baby headbands in several different styles, quickly and easily!

One of the easiest DIY projects you can make as a new mum are baby and toddler headbands.

When my first daughter was born, this was something I loved doing and it resulted in my first dabble of having a home business too.  They are one of the most affordable handmade crafts you can make to sell, but also make lovely gifts for baby showers too.

This tutorial will show you how to make your own DIY baby headbands so you can start making your own beautiful creations too. Best of all, these no sew headbands mean you don’t need to get out your sewing machine!

Smiling baby girl with flower headband

You might also like these gender reveal party ideas, pregnancy announcement ideas and newborn baby essentials for the first 3 months.

DIY Baby Headbands With Flowers

There is something so adorable about a baby with a gorgeous flower headband. They make perfect props for photoshoots and are simple accessories for special occasions.

But you don’t have to save them for special events. Stretchy baby headbands can be for any day of the week!

And they are so easy to make!

They are also very affordable to make too, with a few simple items being all you need to make your own DIY elastic headband.

The best part is that you can make DIY headbands to suit newborn babies, older babies, toddlers, kids and even adult sizes too. Even I wear them sometimes! They aren’t just for babies!

Mother and daughter with handmade headbands

How To Make Baby Headbands

This simple tutorial will show you how to make headbands for babies as well as how to adjust the sizing to suit a toddler, child or adult too.

What you will need:

  • Fold-over elastic or stretch lace
  • Fabric flowers, feathers, bling or other decorations
  • Felt circles (or sheets of felt you can cut)
  • Fabric scissors
  • Glue gun and mat

You can buy fold over elastic by the length or you can get pre-made headbands if you want to save even more time. Although either option is quick and easy. If you are buying pre-made fold-over elastic headbands, all you need to do is add your decorations and embellishments instead.

For felt circles, I like to get a variety of colours and sizes to suit the different sizes of flowers. If you are wanting to get just one to keep it simple, white felt circles in the 1-inch size are the best option.

You can get a huge variety of fabric flowers to make your flower baby headbands. I love to mix together different size flowers, but sometimes it’s just as nice to have a single medium or large flower instead.

Ideally, you want your fabric flowers to be flat at the back. Many larger fabric flowers will already have a felt circle at the back, making them perfect for use on headbands.

You definitely don’t want the type of artificial flowers that have plastic stems, as they will be harder to attach to your headband and they will potentially irritate your child’s head.

You can also use a variety of flat back buttons to decorate the centres of any plain flowers you use. These can add a beautiful little extra bling to your DIY newborn headbands.

A basic pair of fabric scissors will make sure you get smooth cuts without fraying edges when cutting your strips of lace and elastic.

A hot glue gun is the easiest and most secure option for making baby headbands. This one is a great option and it comes with enough hot glue sticks to make a lot of headbands (and other crafts).

That’s everything you need so let’s get onto how to make your own headbands at home!

RELATED READINg: Newborn baby gift ideas

How To Make Headbands For Babies & Kids

Making diy baby headbands

Follow these simple steps to make your own DIY headband for newborns, babies, children, toddlers, teens and adults:

  1. Measure out your elastic/lace to the correct size. Find the sizing guides below. Alternatively, you can measure around your baby’s head, adding an extra 2CM (1 inch). Glue the extra elastic together using a hot glue gun making a circle.
  2. Plan how you want your flowers and embellishments to look on the headband. This allows you to make adjustments before you glue them.
  3. Using a hot glue gun, attach felt circles to your headband where your embellishments will go. They should be hidden by your flowers and decoration.
  4. Attach your flowers and embellishments using the hot glue gun and allow them to cool completely for approximately 15 minutes (or once you are sure it has cooled down) before wearing.

Sizes For Baby Headbands

Babies and toddlers of different ages will require a different size headband, however, the headbands tend to have a lot of stretch, so you may find they fit older children still.

You will want to make sure that your headbands are not too tight, especially if they are for babies. After all, they can’t let us know if it doesn’t feel good.

And each person’s head is a different size so you may need to size up. You may also need to add half to a full inch with less elastic fabrics such as stretch lace.

Baby headband size chart

As an approximate guide, here are the adult and baby headband sizes:

  • Newborn – 31CM or 12 inches
  • 3-6 months – 33cm or 13 inches
  • 6-12 months – 36cm or 14 inches
  • 12-18 months – 38cm or 15 inches
  • 18-24 months – 41cm or 16 inches
  • Older children and adults – 43cm or 18 to 20 inches

Can Adults Or Older Children Wear The Headbands?

Yes! Anyone can wear a handmade headband. The only change you need to make is the size of the headband elastic. For toddler headbands, older children and adults, you will need a larger size.

Baby Headband Style Inspiration

As far as headband styles go, use your imagination and see what works. I love to try new flower combos and add different types of bling, buttons, ribbons etc.

Try 2 or 3 flowers together, or go for a large statement flower instead.

The wider lace style elastic can be great for newborns and younger babies. It tends to be softer and more comfortable for them to wear.

This purple flower headband is a simple headband using a thinner stretch elastic headband. These thinner elastics tend to be less stretchy so you will need to size up slightly. I attached a single large purple flower with a pearl centre.

Baby girl in purple romper and matching headband

For this pretty easy DIY baby headband, I have used two different lace flowers with the fuller flower slightly overlapping the flatter lace flower. I then added a pearl button to the centre. This one is made using a thin stretch lace.

Baby girl with floral headband

For this cute little headband, I have used pink fold over elastic and a single pink ribbon flower. These flowers came with the centres already attached so it couldn’t be quicker to make this easy design.

Baby girl with pink flower headband

As an added bonus, DIY flower headbands are so quick and easy to make, they would be a fantastic mother/daughter or grandmother/granddaughter activity for a rainy afternoon of activities at home!

Bonus Tip: Grab some plain hair clips and use smaller flowers to decorate those too. Just use the felt circles at the back to make it easy to glue the flowers into place with your hot glue gun. They make perfect hair accessories for little girls, teens and adults! I often wear them myself.

Baby Headband Station For Baby Showers & Parties

A baby headband station is a wonderful activity to have at a baby shower, where guests can make a headband for the future arrival.

It can also be a really easy craft project with some parental assistance at a girl’s birthday party and double as a party favour for the guests to take home.

To make your own headband-making station, have a variety of pre-made elastic and lace headbands. A couple of different sizes will mean you have headbands for different stages of your baby’s growth.

Then set up a selection of flowers and bling and have your hot glue gun ready for use. Guests can take turns making their own beautiful headband gift or to take home.

How to make baby headbands with size chart

Valerie

Monday 16th of June 2014

Beautiful! And thanks for the great ideas - I hope to have another little girl some day and will definitely enjoy making my own headbands for her, I do. :D

helenfern

Monday 16th of June 2014

Great Post! The folks who sell these sell them at such a high price - how nice of you to share the info so people can make their own!

Holly

Tuesday 17th of June 2014

Thank you. Happy to share the process as they really are so easy :)

Helen Fern

Monday 16th of June 2014

Great post!! The folks who sell these sell them at such a high price!! How nice of you to share the information for people to make their own!

Weekends Are Fun (Linky)

Monday 16th of June 2014

These are adorable, I remember only using a small bow on my babies!! Thanks fo sharing at Weekends Are Fun!!! Enjoy your day, and Happy Fathers Day to all those in your family!! Now following Pinterest, FB Twitter. Tweeted the post too!!

Holly

Thursday 19th of June 2014

Thank you. Sneaky wordpress had your comment in the spam folder for some reason so sorry for the slow reply. Fathers day is in September here in Australia. I have no idea why it's different. Thanks for following along and for the great linky :)

Sasha

Saturday 14th of June 2014

Adorable!!

Holly

Sunday 15th of June 2014

:)

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