Rosie the riveter style headscarf

When getting ready, is your hair the last thing you do? Laziness can set in hard when doing your hair. But, it can still be cute when done quickly. I want to share with you an easy hair scarf pattern and tutorial. Great for beginner sewists or seasoned ones. We could all use a little help in the hair department. ;)

You'll look cute as a button. Want to avoid a bad hair day? Or maybe you want to sew up something quick and easy? This is the project for you. 

To Make a Headscarf, You'll Need:

• ​1 yard of cotton fabric at least 6" wide
• 1 yard of contrasting fabric at least 6" wide
• Matching thread
• Sewing machine
• Scissors or rotary cutter and mat
• Pins or clips
• Ruler​
• Chalk pen, invisible pen, or similar marking tool
• Measuring tape
• Chopstick, unsharpened pencil, or other turning tool

I chose contrasting fabrics for my headscarf.

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Instructions:

1. Take your outer fabric and cut a long strip of the outer fabric measuring 36" by 4" wide. You can add or take away length and width at this point. This is the size that I prefer. 
2. Use your chalk marker to trace the rectangle shape onto the wrong side of your fabric. You can use scissors or rotary cutter and mat to cut out the fabric.
3. ​Cut an angle off the short ends from top to bottom, this is easy... just eyeball it. (The angle will give the scarf some style when it's on your head and tied.)
4. Iron the 2 strips nice and flat to get out all the wrinkles out. 

Move your cup of coffee to another location, the ironing board is not a stable place. Yes, I know this from past experience. Ugh!! 
 

Place the fabrics RST (right sides together) and pin, pin, pin. I left a 2-3" gap about 1/3 of the way on one side for turning out. This is important. Mark with pins where your opening is. 

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Backstitch at the beginning and end of sewing your opening.

Sew with a 1/2" seam allowance and 2.5mm width. Start at the end closest to you and backstitch. Take your time, this is a long seam and you want it to be straight.

When you get to the corner, stop sewing, leave the needle down in the fabric, and put the presser foot up. Pivot your fabric. Put the presser foot back down and continue sewing until you reach the long side again. Repeat the pivot method.

Pivot and sew up the short angled edge of the headscarf.

Sewing, sewing, just keep sewing. When you've come back to the gap you left, backstitch. If you forgot to leave a gap, no big deal. Pull out the seam ripper and take out a couple of inches of your seam. Take a few seconds to check your stitching. Make sure both pieces of fabric are stitched together and you don't have any accidental openings.

Trimmed corners

Use sharp scissors to trim away the excess fabric at your corners. This will take away the bulk and give you nice, crisp corners.

Trim off the seam allowance to reduce bulk.

Use a rotary cutter or scissors to trim down the seam allowances. After everything is trimmed everything, grab a chopstick!

It's time to turn the scarf right side out. Take the larger end of the chopstick and finagle it into a corner and gently slide the fabric over it. Once you get this tricky part done, it makes turning out easy.

Use the blunt end of the chopstick to wiggle the fabric downwards.

Once it looks like this, gently slide the fabric down so that the right side of the fabric is showing and turned out. Repeat with the other corner. You may have to say a curse word or two, it helps. ;)

You're almost ready to wear it!

It's starting to look wearable. Woohoo!! If yours looks similar to this, yay! If not, uh-oh. 

The iron is your friend when it comes to sewing.

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Iron your head scarf flat. If you need to, spritz water on the whole thing and iron away. Wrinkles be gone!

Now, stitch the opening closed. Fold the raw edges under making sure they are flush with the seam. Pin the opening closed. Take the scarf to your machine and topstitch the seam closed. Stitch 1/8" from the edge. Backstitch at the beginning and end. It will look like the photo below when it's finished.

Topstitch the opening closed and press.

Yay!! It's finished. Where will you wear your new scarf first? Super easy, right? You can whip up quite a few of these from one yard of fabric. They make great gifts for others as well. 

If you have any questions or comments, leave them below.

Thanks for hanging out today and happy sewing!

​Annette

Did you know you could fold your scarf and make it into a heart shape? Yes, I have that kind of time on my hands.

To Wear the Scarf:

1. Place the center at the back of your neck and pull the ends up towards the sky at an angle.

2. Tie a loose but, not too loose knot where you want the scarf to sit.

3. Complete the knot and add bobby pins to the sides of the scarf. The pins keep it from sliding off your hair.

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