Our girls have longer hair but it is so fine.  Pony tails and pig tails seem to last about 20 minutes before the hair starts creeping out and looks messy.  We saw the teens at the park wearing bandanas  to keep their hair back and the oldest commented that she thought they were cute.  So, what to do but give them a try.  They worked so well we have now made them to co-ordinate with many of their summer outfits.

What you need:

14" square of cotton fabric  (Our two granddaughters are 3 years old and a very small 6 year old.  If you want to make them for older children try a 16"-18" square.)

3 1/2" piece of 1/2' wide elastic

embroidery design of your choice

embroidery thread

stabilizer

sewing thread

What you do:

1.  Cut the fabric square in half on the diagonal (you can make two from each 14" square).

2.  With wrong sides together  fold and press one short side in 1/4".  Fold in and press in 1/4" again enclosing raw edge.  Sew close to the inner edge.  Repeat for the other short side.

3.  Hoop and embroider the design as desired.  I used a printed template pinned in place.  Hooped tear away stabilizer and then used my Lapel Stick to hold the bandana in place on the stabilizer.

I love my Lapel Stick for sticking cotton on top of the hoop.  I do lots of applique and little items that cannot be hooped.  It works great for me.

4.  Clip the extended corners.

5.  With wrong sides together fold and press long side in 1/2".  Fold and press the corners in 1".  Fold and press the long side in 1/2" again  enclosing the raw edges. 

Note:  At this point you might want to wrap it around the child's head to see if you will need to make any adjustments to the elastic insertion.

6.  Insert about 1/2" of the elastic end into one end of the fold and sew it down.

7.  Sew along the inner edge of the long side stopping about 3/4" from the end.  Insert the other end of the elastic into the fold.   Finish sewing the seam.

6.  Sew along the end where elastic was inserted.

 My eldest granddaughter is horse crazy so we used a little horse head from SWN Wild Horses collection on this one.  Any small design will work so you can make each one unique and special.  Emma wore one last week to a church gathering and now all the girls in my Sunday school class want one.   

Here are a few other projects that might make quick and easy summer projects:

Hair Bows

A quick wristlet

Travel Strap and handle covers

Baby T's

Going Green Sunday Bag

Have fun with all your summer projects.

Take care,

DB