Attack of the Gender Nuetral Onsie Part 1: DIY headband

My little Sirenita is four months old now. We were very blessed to have three baby showers for her, and haven't really had to buy any clothes for her yet. Until now all her clothes were pretty girly, but the size she is currently wear at least half of the Onsies are "gender neutral." It's not a big deal but, most people assume a baby in "gender neutral" colors is a boy. I considered sewing some pink ribbon flowers to them, or painting some pearl necklaces. Then I had a Back to the Future moment, and realized I may someday use those for my son. (Someday, far, far into the future.) Thinking of a son I may one day have leaves me no choice but to find another way to "girl up" these Onsies.

 My first thought was to make a bunch of tutus. I made one. It's cute. It's very cute. It sure doesn't look comfortable. It's something I would put on her for pictures, but couldn't expect her to wear all day. Time for a new plan. I thought I'd make a bunch of headbands and bows.

I checked out tutorials on Pinterest, found there were lots of cute options, and decided to go for it. Somewhere I saw that they used an old t-shirt to make headbands for a baby. So I headed over to Walmart for a cheap shirt. I looked all over the baby section at Walmart and the cheapest I found cost $3. I didn't want to spend that much to chop it up. I checked the cloth section but the colors they had for knits weren't very good, and since I was there early there wasn't anyone to cut it. I had nearly given up when I found this Spaghetti strap tank in the girl's section for $1.68.

I can afford to destroy a shirt that cost $1.68. With my destroyable t-shirt now in hand, I looked up my tutorial on Pinterest. Low and behold I couldn't find the T-shirt tutorial! Grrr. Magically, all the tutorials now called for panty hose or required me to sew a tubes. I hate sewing tubes.I decided to give it a whirl and came up with this design.

Start by cutting a strip about four inches wide off the shirt. I started at the bottom, and then cut off the bottom hem.

After removing the bottom hem, pull on the fabric to stretch it out. It will roll up like in the picture below, just like making those t-shirts all the girls used to wear in the 90s where we chopped the bottom off and stretched it out to sew a braid up the sides.  Cut this strip in half and remove the hems.

   Now grab yourself a sheep. Or something that you can use in the place of your child's head. My daughter was sleeping while I did this, so this 30 year old sheep stood in for her. We have a long standing friendship, this sheep and I. In any case, you probably don't want to use a live child for this as it may take a little while.
Tie one of the strips of cloth around your subject. This part is the band, so pull it till it's about the size of the child's head. Knit will stretch some, so it's ok if it's a bit smaller than your little one's head.

Now it's time to create the bow. Take the second strip of fabric, and fold a third of it over.

Fold the other side over so that the raw ends overlap slightly in the center. I tucked the edges under the sides just slightly. 

Pinch the edges together to make a bow.

Lay your square/bow on top of the sheep's headband. Take the loose end of band, and wrap it around the bow. Tuck it behind the headband and pull it through so that it hangs loose, like the end of a bow. 

Now it should look like a bow. I pulled the rolled edges of the center piece apart just enough to sew between them. I did it by hand, and just sewed straight through front to back several times.  You could slide this off your sheep and sew it on a sewing machine, sew it by hand, or  even glue it. The key is just to make sure you get bow and headband stuck together, and don't sew/glue it to your sheep.

Here is what the back looks like as you're sewing it. It looks a little crazy, but that will be against baby's head anyhow.

Once you've finished sewing, pull the edges of the center piece back together. Snip off any spare threads, and trim the dangly edges of the bow so they are the same size. Now it's ready to wear! Isn't it cute?  The band is very versatile and can either be spread out for a wide band, or left rolled up for a smaller band. Since it's made from knit it's very soft and doesn't feel bulky on baby's head! 

So sweet!