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| Fleece ear warmer headband... |
So when I saw a nifty project via AllFreeSewing for a fleece ear warmer, I immediately dug up an old sweatshirt that I had been thinking of tossing out to source the material. It's old; the screen print on the front is flaking off and the seam around the collar was starting to separate. It wasn't even good enough to be donated.
While the fleece is much less fleece-y than when the garment was new, I figured it would still be good enough for this upcycle.
Before I go any further, let me get the credit stuff out of the way. The ear warmer headband pattern and tutorial is the creation of Cat from MaryMarthaMama.com — full link at the end of this post.
By the way, I'm hoping this will be the last of my "cold weather" projects for awhile!
Here is the sweatshirt that I recycled.
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| Old sweatshirt that has seen better days... |
It occurred to me that the trim across the bottom looked like the perfect location to harvest the fleece that I needed for the ear warmer.
Using the pattern that Cat provides, I fussy-cut the piece from the front and then took a piece from the back and had my little ear warmer sewn up in no time at all.
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| Ta da! New ear warmer from old sweatshirt! |
It's a simple sew: with right sides together, stitch the top and bottom edges, then turn the whole thing right side out and sew together the ends at the back.
As you can see, the process leaves a visible seam on the inside. No real biggie, since it's located at the back of the head when worn.
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| Side view of the ear warmer... |
But — fan of reversibility that I am — I wanted to make one that could be used on both sides, with no visible seams. However, that's for another day and another post. ;-)
In the meantime, in the spirit of repurposing and upcycling, here are some other ideas for how you can make your own ear warmer headband if you don't have an old sweatshirt (or sweatpants) at the ready.
Remember when I posted about my scarf upcycling ideas? Well, this project is perfect for those extra fleece scarves that no one wants to wear.
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| A fleece scarf that no one is wearing anymore can be made into several ear warmer headbands... |
Or... how many of us have many extra fleece blankets that aren't being used? You can make many, many, many headbands out of a blanket.
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| I even have a fleece blanket that is still in its wrapper... |
It doesn't even have to be fleece... how about flannel? (Scarves? Pajamas? Or lumberjack shirts that are often quilted?)
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| Flannel would work well for this ear warmer headband too... |
Or maybe even old terry towels? I'm sure you get the picture.
Every year, our city calls out for donations of winter accessories for our homeless population. These headbands would be great for making and donating, a charity sewing idea I'm going to consider seriously for next winter.
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| image courtesy of MaryMarthaMama.com... |
One caveat about this pattern: it's one size only and I know for a fact that we don't all have the same size heads. When I come up with my own, I'll have to figure out some way to size it.
In the meantime, thanks again to Cat for this project; the full link to her tutorial is here.
Jill would have to be the queen of refashioning. With your cold climate, this is a great way to reuse a pre-loved sweater.
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