Unicorn Headbands are da bomb. In fact I feel the same way about unicorn anything. It’s something about the simplicity of unicorns: the purity of the white body, with just a hint of color, a rainbow hint of color, they are magical creatures and make you wish that fairytales and magic were real.
These headbands were the one activity I was most excited to do last term, with our Craft Market class. This is a class of kindergarteners and first graders, so I knew that they would love these headbands, at least as much as I do.
It is a pretty basic process. Figuring out how to do the horn was the most difficult part. But once that was figured out, everything else fell into place pretty easily. For this tutorial, I used pre-made paper flowers from Michaels. In our class, we used paper flowers but they came in pieces and the students were able to create their own flower designs.
Here is a close up of the flowers at the front of the headband.
A wider view of the headband.
Here it is. Sweet, elegant and dare I say adorable. Beautiful!!
Supplies: white felt, light pink felt, gold thread or yarn, poly-oil stuffing, 1/2″ wide plastic headband hot glue gun, tacky glue, pattern template and not shown is a thin rod like implement like a pencil or wooden craft stick to stuff the stuffing at the very tip of the horn , paper flowers
The first step is to cut out the paper templates and then cut out the fabric pieces using the templates. When done, set all but the headband cover aside. Take the plastic headband, and apply a small amount of tacky glue on the outside of the headband.
Apply the headband cover to the plastic headband, lining it up so that the cover is placed about 1/4 inch beyond the edge. Gently press the two pieces together.
Continue to apply glue and adhering the cover to the headband.
Once the outside is done, its time to glue the inside of the headband. Apply a thin layer of hot glue to one side of the inside of the headband.
Gently press the cover over the hot glue. I find it easier to do one side at a time, vs. switching back and forth.
Once one side is done, move on to the other side. All done.
Next place the horn felt piece in front of you. You will start working on the tip of the horn. Fold the tip of the horn into threes
Open the top layer and add a thin layer of hot glue.
Quickly fold the flap over and gently press down to adhere.
Continue to adhere keeping the overlap between 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch.
To stuff the horn: Start off with a very small amount of stuffing, about 75% less then is shown in the photo, just a whisper. The smaller amounts of stuffing make it easier to push the stuffing further into the tighter space of the horn tip as well as prevent lumpiness. Insert as far as your finger can go.
Then use your rod implement to push the stuffing to the very tip of the horn. Continue to add more stuffing, adding just a little more each time.
There should be no lumps, just a nice smooth stuffed horn.if there are lumps, take all the stuffing out, and put it back in using less stuffing, each time you push it in.
Measure out the gold thread by wrapping it around the horn, and then add an additional 2 to 3 inches. Cut the golden thread. Then starting at the base of the horn, right by the back seam and close to the bottom edge, place the golden thread to lay flat and just past the horn seam, place a dot of glue on top of the golden thread.
Hold the golden thread in place until the glue dries.
Once dry, wrap the golden thread around the horn in a spiral pattern. Make sure all the spirals are equi-distant from each other. Once you reach the tip of the horn, wrap it twice around and then place a dot of glue where the back seam is. Allow to dry and then trim off the surplus thread as close to the dried glue as possible.
Take the headband and place the horn centered, with the back seam positioned towards the back. Pull the back bottom edge over to the bottom of the headband. Add a drop of glue to adhere the bottom back edge to the inside of the headband. Pull the front bottom edge of the horn to overlap the back bottom edge. Add a drop of hot glue over the adhered bottom edged and pull the front bottom edge tightly over the glue. Make sure that as you are pulling the edge in, it does not misalign the horn and keeps it straight.
This is how the bottom of the headband should look once you have finished adhering.
With the bottom adhered, it is time to place and adhere the ears.
First place the four ear pieces in front of you. Then paint the entire bottom of the pink inner ear with tacky glue.
Gently press the inner ear to one of the outer ear pieces as shown in the photo above.
Repeat for the other ear.
Here is my collection of paper flowers I will use on the headbands.
For this headband, I decided to attach the flowers closest to the horn first before attaching the ear. I wanted to make sure that the flowers and the ears were placed exactly, without too much space between them. I started by adding a drop of glue on the first flower.
I attached the blue flower on the right side of the headband, when facing it..
Next, line up the first ear next to the blue flower making sure to to position the pink inner ear facing the front. Once you have the ear lined up and positioned to your liking, turn the headband upside down, while holding the top in place, place a line of glue in the middle of the headband as shown in the photo. Quickly and gently press the ear to the bottom of the headband.
Then apply a thin line of hot glue on the edge of the ear, then quickly press the front and back sides together being sure to align the edges. Repeat on the other side, first the flower and then the ear.
I continued adding the flowers, including adding some flowers on the back of the headband.
I liked using different types of flowers as well as different colors. So play around with your choices and be creative.
Here it is. All done.
Here are two headbands that Leila and Grace made. Both just turned 6 years old.
Here is all three headbands together.
Here is Grace with her Unicorn Headband.