DIY Feather Headband

A long time friend of mine and I figured out how to do this over the weekend over a couple glasses of red wine. What better to do on a Friday night ; )

This project is relatively easy and straight forward. The trick is to go slow and use small amounts of glue at a time. These headbands in stores easily sell for $20 or more so why not try it at home? Plus, they make great gifts and the more you make, the cheaper each will be!

DIY Feather Headband

Materials:

- 5-6 black feathers of varying sizes, length, and fluffiness (I bought mine at Michaels)

- Hot glue gun with full stick of glue

- 1 peacock feather (I usually order mine from overseas since you get get them in bulk for cheap)

- peacock colored beads (optional)

- dark colored felt sheet (I used dark brown)

- scissors

- headbands (I got 3 from Hobby Lobby for about $1.50 on sale- $3 regularly)

Directions:

Step one: Cut a tear drop shape out of felt as well as a rectangle small enough to fit on the back of the teardrop. The teardrop should be about an 1 1/2 inches in length and about 1 inch thick at it's thickest point. Cut bottom off tear drop so that the bottom is flat. Cut a small strip of felt about 1/2 inch high and 3/4 inch long. (See pictures below) The felt will be used to glue feathers directly onto and then will be secured to headband.

Step two: Arrange black feathers on felt. Spread them out evenly to create a backdrop for the peacock feather. They will need to be fanned out evenly and provide even fluffiness. Make sure the black feathers are spread wide enough so that when the peacock feather is added, they are not completely covered up. You will also want to make sure that any really long feathers are in the back of all the shorter ones.

Step three: Once you are happy with the black feathers' arrangement, glue them to the felt. You can initially cover the felt with hot glue and then add the first few feathers. You will then have to add small amounts of glue on top of bottom feathers to attach remaining feathers.

Step three: Cut peacock feather to size and decide if you'd like to trim the top of it. I decided to trim mine so that it would fit better on top of the black feathers.

Step four: Glue peacock feather on top of black feathers by adding a small amount of glue to back of peacock feather. Don't add to the bottom of the feather. Find the base of the center part of the feather and flip over and glue to corresponding place on back (see picture below).

Step five: In front of a mirror, decide where you want the feathers to be positioned. I did mine about 2 1/2 to 3 inches from the base of the headband. Add long strip of glue to back of felt and glue to headband. (see picture) Add extra glue on head band and along sides of where it was glued to the felt and then press rectangular piece of felt to other side of headband (see pictures).

Step six (Optional): add beads to bottom of peacock feather. If the beads don't fit, you may need to crunch the quill so that it is thinner.

Step seven: Take long pieces of felt, add hot glue to the middle of it, and wrap exposed feather quills with it. (See picture) This part will remain in the hair and should not be visible while wearing it. Cut off excess felt and glue down any loose pieces. If you don't want the longer feathers sticking up, you can carefully glue them along headband. You will need to snap the tall feather(s) in a few places to make it pliable and then add a very small amount of glue to part of head band you wish to attach it to. Make sure to leave some slack and not glue it so that it is stretched too tightly or the feathers might break.