Our headband  had a flower that was starting to look a little tired and worn so we made it new again! This braided ribbon could embellish many things— a hair clip would be cute too! These headbands would make great handmade gifts for little girls to make each other!

Woven Ribbon Headband

Gather a headband and about 4 1/2 yards of ribbon. You can use any with — I chose 1/4 inch. The braiding will be two toned if the ribbon is different on the front and back, another nice look!

Begin by finding the middle of the ribbon. In the middle of the ribbon make a loop crossing the left side over the right. (which way you start doesn’t matter — I am left handed)

Now bring the bottom ribbon up and make a loop and send it through the beginning loop that you just made by crossing the ribbon.

Pull the right side snug.

Now repeat for the other side, picking up the right side, making a loop and sending it up through the loop just made on the other side.

Pull the left side snug. Make a loop with the left side sending it through the loop made on the other side.

Pull right side snug.

Continue braiding until you have a piece long enough to cover the headband. Clip the end.Bring the other side over and then trim. Fold ends under and hot glue.

Hot glue ribbon to headband.

Finished!


About Cindy Hopper

Learn More

you may also like

Comments

  1. I love the braid, I was thinking this would be great for hatbands and trim on store bought purses. and clothes, too! It also reminds me of using 2 same lengths of rickrack same width (could be different colors) and weave wrapping them around each other you are able to make a braid, it is good for headbands, hatbands, clothing trim and trimming household items, too!

  2. I remember doing this with “gimp” as a kid! We DID use this pattern to make bracelets! We also learned to do the “box” pattern as well. I never even thought of using ribbon to do this…I love the idea!

  3. Normally, I don’t bother to comment, but this tutorial made me so frustrated, I hope to help others. I was eventually able to figure it out, but the problem is the first few steps are completely pictured wrong and instructed wrong.

    If you look how the ribbon is looped, front-wise, like a collar of a shirt with the starting left piece over the right piece, the tutorial then tells you to take the back piece and loop it through the front. This DOES NOT, make the resultant knot shown. What results is a weird, tangled bottom.

    To get it right, you have to cross the right side over the left, then take the FRONT piece and loop it to the back. Basically the complete opposite of what the tutorial says to do and what is pictured, but if you do this, you get the exact knot in the third picture. Hope this helps someone. It was so frustrating following the pictures and words EXACTLY and the result was utterly wrong. Trust me on this, do the exact opposite and then you will get the pretty pointed bottom.

  4. I know this post is pretty old, in fact I found it soon after you posted it because I saw a woman at the local Civil War Re-enactment doing this weaving/braiding. I bought one from her and watched her do it. Then later I spent over an hour looking for a tutorial. I found you, and I learned how to make it and now I make them all the time for a variety of things. (thanks!)

    What still irks me is that I can’t figure out what the technique is called. Everytime I try to figure it out I can’t seem to find a name for it.

    When I googled ribbon braiding/weaving before, it comes up with so many different ways, but none of them have names!

    There’s got to be a name for the different ways, or something!

    That’s why it took me over an hour to find the right tutorial for the one I bought.

    I bookmarked your site, in case I forgot, or someone else wanted to know. But, I still don’t know what to call it..

  5. What a beautifull headband! I just made two, one for each of my girls.. Thanks for the tutoríal!

  6. Thanks for the tutorial! Uses A LOT of my ribbon but this is just
    FA-BU-LOUS! A lot of detail in the tutorial. You may want to make the first few steps clearer in the pictures. I had a bit of trouble understanding what to do. But THANKS! That’s all I want to say. 😀

  7. Just tried this. It looks beautiful! Took a little while to get the rhythm of it, but then it was easy. Definitely takes a lot of ribbon, though. Now I want to try it with 2 different colors. Thanks for the tutorial.

  8. Love this! Make sure to use a big enough ribbon. The first time I tried it mine was too small and it didn’t look good at all. Used a bigger one (about the size pictured above) and it looked amazing! Very cool!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *