Free Pattern/Project: Crochet Rope Headband and Fabric Bow

ARRRRHHHG! THAR BE PIRATES!

Well, not really. But -  I love pirates, and found some cool pirate fabric, and wanted to make something not insanely obvious that can be worn to show my love of all things nautical and pirate-tastic.

This project is extremely easy, involved very little sewing (I did mine by hand!), includes a super quick crochet headband, and you can customize it to suite whatever theme you prefer.   

The cool thing (IMO) is that the bow is on a clip, so you can use it on this headband, directly in your hair, or on a bag, scarf, or where ever you want to clip it. And you end up with a cute stand alone headband as well.

I was not feeling well this day, so completed the whole thing from my bed! Please pardon the wrinkled bed cover in all the pictures. 


THE BOW:

Materials/Notes:

• 5" x 7" -ish scrap of fabric
• Fabric Glue
• Thread and needle, or sewing machine/supplies
• Metal hair clip, mine was 2" long, available at any craft store. You could even use an extra bobby pin
• crochet hook in size 5 or 6 mm, depending on the look you want for the center of the bow
• a small amount of any yarn that matches your fabric, and you want to use for the headband 
• Notes: this project can be customized in many ways! I suggest reading through first. You may want to make a smaller or larger bow, and adjust accordingly. 

Steps:

1. Get your fabric ready... cut into a 5" x 7" rectangle.  I'm using pirate fabric. 


2. After it is cut, fold WRONG SIDE in half lengthwise, leaving you with a 2.5" x 7" (approximately) piece of fabric, inside out. 

3. Sew along the edge. See the picture below for post-sewing appearance. I used a simple stictch by hand, you could do this on a machine much faster (did this on a day I could not tolerate sitting up enough to use the pedal).

Sew along the edge. Do not flatten in this position, you want the seam to be in the middle back of the bow.

4. Turn the fabric inside out, and place the seam in the back middle of the bow. Do not press/flatten yet.

Hidden seam!

 
5. Turn the rough ends inward, and folding them inside to hide them, and apply fabric glue. Press and hold, wiping away any excess with a cloth if needed. The fabric glue I used dries very quickly, and firms up the end of the bow, giving it a nice pointy-edged look.

Turn ends inward.

Apply fabric glue inside the ends and press together.

Taa-da! Pointy firm edging with no visible seams. You can press or flatten at this point if you want a flat bow.

 6. Scrunch your bow together at the middle, which naturally should create a few nicely placed creases. Sew the middle together with thread (or run through your machine if you are being fancy). This will give your bow more definition and reinforce it.

Pinch (pictured from the back), and Sew!

Post - sewing. Front view.

7. Break out your crochet hook. I used a 5 mm hook, and WW yarn that looked rope-like to me to go with the whole pirate theme. Use the same yarn you will use with your head band if you like to be extra coordinated! My yarn was a gift from someone, so I honestly have no clue the brand or name, as there was no label when I got it.

8. Chain 45. Tie off. Leave about 2-3 inches on both ends that can be tied together and possibly woven in.

9. Wrap your rope style crochet chain around the middle of the bow, and tie the ends together in the back (wrong side), so they are hidden. I just cut the tails, but you could weave them in if you like.   

Wrap crochet chain around middle of bow.

 10. Slip a metal clip or bobby pin into the yarn on the back of the bow. I ended up using a 2" metal clip, and made a custom charm out of a bronze ship wheel and resin rose, which I tied in directly to the rope. You don't need a charm though! 

I added a charm to the front of the bow for extra pirate rockabilly flare :)

That's it for the bow! Here are a few more pictures:

Back of the bow, clip slides through the yarn. Sorry about the bad lighting, have no clue how that happened!

A much nicer picture of the front.

Bow pictured clipped directly in hair.

 
 
THE CROCHET HEADBAND:

Materials/Notes/Abbreviations:

• yarn of your choosing, to get the look pictured, use WW yarn
• 5 mm hook
• yarn needle to sew in ends and attach the two pieces this is made out of
• Ch = chain
• dc = double crochet
• hdc = half double crochet
• st = sticth
• sk = skip
  
• Note: Again, you may need to customize this a bit to fit your head. The finished headband in this pattern is approx 18 inches around and the yarn is very stretchy. It fits a normal medium sized woman's head. You may want to use a ruler and see how your foundation chain measures with your style/gauge to make sure it will be long enough. This is a flexible pattern though, you will see how the finishing thinner piece allows for adjustment. 

Pattern:

Part 1 ~~~ Piece A

•  Ch 50, leaving a long beginning chain tail for sewing later.
•  Sk 2, dc in 3rd st, ch 1, skip 1 st, *dc, ch 1, sk 1* until the end of the row. Chain 2, turn.
•  Dc into every ch space, with a ch 1 in between (dc in ch space, ch 1, dc in ch space, ch 1, etc...). Ch 2 at the end of each row. This is the "lattice stitch" if you need to look it up.
• I have 4 rows total (verticle). You can make this slimmer, or wider depending on how you want your headband to look. 
• Tie off once rows are complete, leaving a long tail for sewing. 

Part 2 ~~~~ Piece B

• This is the skinny connector part of the headband that will sit under your head. I found this kept it on better than a wide headband all the way around. 
• Ch 24, hdc into 2nd ch. Hdc across row. Ch 1, turn.
• Hdc 3 rows total, with a ch 1 and turn at the end of each. 
• Tie off, cut yarn and weave in ends
• Now, sew the skinny Piece B to both ends of the wider rope style Piece A, using the tails from Piece A. Weave in ends. 
• That's it! Now you can clip your bow to the open weaved headband easily, or wear it plain.

  

Finished Rope Headband!

Clip on your bow - and you are done!

Hope this was as fun for you as it was for me! I plan to make many more of these, they use such a small amount of fabric and are so easy!

Have a great day :)
--Claire


***Feel free to use free patterns for whatever purpose you like, but please link back to my post. Please do not copy and post this pattern and claim it as your own. You may share photos that include the Horizontal Designs text only.