So many of the hair bands I use to hold my hair back off my face have stretched out to the point where they’re no longer useable. I was just about to pick up a new package of hair bands when I realized that if I was spending time refashioning my clothes, why couldn’t I spend a bit of time and rework my existing hair bands so that they’re useful to me again.

This is such a quick and easy refashion that I hesitate to publish a tutorial but I did make some mistakes at first that I can save you from with the little tutorial below.

I tied a knot in one head band and tried it on to determine if that was the new circumference that would work. I was lucky on the first try – it was the perfect circumference. Note: you must do this with one of the stretched out head bands as a new head band will need a different circumference than one that’s been worn many times.

I then made one cut in another stretched out head band and measure it along the knotted head band and cutting a section out so that it was the proper length. After sewing the head band together several times over it worked well but the section where it was sewn together looked awful. I went through my scrap bag and found a small section from my Brown Ribbed Knit T-shirt to Halter Top makeover which I sewed around the offending section of the head band to make it look a bit better.

The finished head band.

a-a-a-nd the closeup

For the rest of the head bands I cut them once, then wrapped the section that was too large around and around and around the headband to create a bit of a decorative  knot, sewing it in place as I went along.

Here's the second head band ...

... and the closeup.

Neither of these will win a design contest but that wasn’t the point. The  point was to not needlessly throw something that was perfectly salvageable in the trash.

Well I won’t bore you all with the details of the rest of my refitted head bands, suffice it to say that I continued to cut and twist and sew until they were all done and now I have a basket full of head bands that all work just like they should and I didn’t spend a dime, I didn’t contribute to the land fill and I feel really great that I applied the refashioning philosophy to such a small thing and that it turned out well.

Another thing that I could have done would be to pin or sew a flower over the sloppy looking sewn section.

These hairbands are the perfect thing to add a brooch or flower clip. They’re so versatile!

Or take the easy and “green” way out and cut tubes from the legs of your pantyhose or tights that have runs to make bunches of stretchy headbands. Tip: don’t use the section of the hose that have the run 🙂 – that part you can safely discard. So far as I know there is no way to refashion a run in a pair of hose.