Thanksgiving Turkey Headband Tutorial -

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I’ve got an adorable Thanksgiving Turkey Headband Tutorial for all you crafters out there. Pottery Barn kids use to sell these cute Turkey Headbands during the holidays but now they are hard to find so I made one for my little guy and I’m here to show you how you can make one too! Check out the tutorial below…

Aren’t these the cutest!!

(Pottery Barn on left, mine on right)

DIY Thanksgiving Headband Tutorial:

Supplies:

Fabric Scraps for feathers
Felt scraps for body
Fleece or other soft fabric for headband
Stiff sew-in Peltex Ultra Firm Stabilizer (sold by the yard at JoAnns in the interface section)
Sewing machine/thread
Needle and embroidery thread
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Other: Scissors, iron, safety pin, printer/paper (optional), pins.

Instructions:

1. First thing you’ll want to do is Print the pdf pattern by clicking here – Turkey Headband Pattern (you will need a pdf reader to open the file). Then print it off (check to make sure the 1″ box in the upper right corner is 1″ If it isn’t check your printer settings and make sure it is printing to scale) and then cut out your wings and body pattern pieces. *If you don’t have access to a printer the measurements are about: Feathers – 5-1/4″ long, 1-1/2″ end, Feather stabilizer 1/4″ smaller, Body- 3-3/8″ by 3-1/2″, Wattle is 1-3/4″ long, and the Face is 3-1/4″ tall by 2-3/8″ at the widest part.

Once your pattern is cut out pin the pattern to your fabric and cut out all your pieces. Each feather will have 2 pieces (one front and one back) cut from fabric scraps, 2 body pieces and one of each turkey piece, cut from felt. The beak is just a little triangle piece, I didn’t make a pattern piece for that.

2. You also need to use your pattern to cut out your feathers and a body from your stabilizer material.

3. For the body sew the outside edge of the head to one of the body pieces. Then attach your beak and wattle (the red part) using glue – craft glue or a hot glue gun.

4. With right sides together sew each feather together along the outside edge, leaving the bottom open for turning.

5. Before turning right side out cut a few ‘V’ shaped slits along the rounded edge to help it lay flat after turning. Make sure you don’t cut the thread!

Then turn each piece right side out, iron flat, and stuff with stabilizer cutout.

6. Once your feathers are turned, stuffed and ironed out we are going to use a blanket-stitch along the outside edge to add a little embellishment. You will need your embroidery thread (I use 2 strands) and a needle, start at one end and finish at the other. You can find a tutorial on how to do this stitch HERE. (This step is optional, if you are in a hurry I would recommend skipping this step or using a sewing machine with this stitch on it because this part takes time).

This is what you should have so far…

Notice I have used different color embroidery thread for each feather…

7. Now use your hot glue gun to attach the feathers together where they overlap. Do this by first laying them out how you want them and then lift one feather at a time, adding a few dabs of glue to adhere to the feather underneath it.

8. For extra strength I sewed the base of the feathers to the stabilizer body and then attached the stabilizer and feathers to the front body piece using hot glue. (In the picture below the turkey body is face down and then the stiff body piece and feathers are attached face down, lastly attach your back body piece with hot glue-not shown in picture). NOTE: When gluing the body make sure you only add hot glue to your stabilizer body material not to the edges of your felt body or it will be difficult to stitch embroidery floss around the outside of the body as done in the next step.

This is what your Turkey will look like so far…

10. Now use red embroidery floss and a needle to stitch a straight stitch around the outside edge of the body. (This step is also optional, feel free just to hot glue the edges together if you prefer).

11. Now it’s time to make the headband part. I chose to use a soft fleece material I had lying around. I cut 2 pieces (21″ x 2″ for my 1 year old) and put them right sides together.

12. Sew the 2 long sides, leaving the short ends open for turning.

13. Flip right side out using a safety pin at one end and feeding it through the tube, out the other end.

14. Finally, sew the edges about 1/4″ in from the edge and attach a 2 inch piece of Velcro to the ends so that they overlap, make sure the soft Velcro side is on the side that may touch baby’s head.

14. Attach your headband to the back of your turkey using hot glue.
*In the picture below the soft Velcro is on the inside of the outer piece and the pokey side is attached to the outside of the inner piece…

Now step back and admire your work!

Now try it on your little cutie!