Usamimi Headbands

Usamimi headbands are quite big in Asia at the moment, and I've noticed a few places in the UK selling them now too. I saw this gorgeous white lace one in Urban Outfitters before Christmas, but decided against buying it because I thought that £10 was extortionate for something that is basically material around wire. This led me to embrace my creative streak and try to make one myself.

I was surprised at how simple they are to make. It took me approximately an hour and a bit to make/hand sew the one above. Considering I'm awful at sewing, I'm pretty impressed with how the headband turned out. *Pats myself on the back* The headbands are extremely versatile and can be worn in a number of different ways.


For tutorials on how to make these headbands, you could type "How to make usamimi headbands" into Google. This will bring up a tonne of sites showing you a couple of different methods of making these. The site I used for guidance was Yes Stylist. The tutorial on there is amazing, there are step by step instructions and pictures, making it so much easier to understand.

I did things a little differently to the tutorial linked above, but I thought I'd summarise it here:

What you'll need:

• Material (Any material should be fine apart from silk/satin, because that will probably just slip off your head)
• Scissors
• Thin, bendy wire (I used 24 gauge)
• Needle and thread
• Tape measure
• Pins (Not entirely necessary, but do come in handy)

1. Decide how long and wide you want your headband to be. Mine was 30" long, 2.2" wide. Cut out the material you need. This can be done by either doubling the length (to fold and sew it lengthways) and or doubling the width (to fold and sew it widthways). I doubled the width, so I cut a strip of material 30" long and 4.5" wide.
2. Turn the material inside out. If you have a design on the material, it should be facing away from you. Sew along the lengths of material to end up with a tube. Don't sew the ends up at this point!
3. Turn the material back inside out - The design on the material should now be facing you. (This was probably one of the most time consuming steps!) I found that using a pair of tweezers to help pull the fabric back through was easier than using my hands.
4. Measure the wire to be approximately 2 inches longer than the material tube.
5. Loop the end to avoid having sharp ends and snagging of the material, thread it through the material and secure with a few stitches.
6. Sew the ends together. I decided to sew them into a triangular tip by folding over the excess material into a triangle and sewing around the edge.
7. Put it on your head and you're good to go!

I bought 1m of material, which was WAY too much! I managed to make 2 headbands, a 16x16" cushion cover and still have a tonne left over!

What do you think of these headbands? Will you be attempting to DIY one? I've already bought some lace to try and recreate the one from Urban Outfitters.

Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy