poly cord knotted headband

a crappy weather combatant.

when it's over 90 degrees in new york, 2 things are certain:

1. i'll need popsicles.
2. i'll have a horrible hair day.

the only solution to number 2 is a thousand bobby pins and a good headband. there have been so many sticky hot days recently that i've cycled through my headband stash, and needed something new. a recent purchase of poly cord at the hardware store was begging for it.

• 1/4" or 3/8" poly cord rope
• 1 1/2" wide black satin or gros grain ribbon
• 1 hair band
• scissors
• glue gun and glue sticks

there are a ton of tutorials on how to tie this knot. i used this one, but there's also this one, and even this one. i had a half hour to throw this together, so hot glue was preferable to sewing. it held up through the heat and a wicked thunderstorm to perfection.

• cut cord into 4 pieces, each 1 yard in length. follow any of the tutorials above to tie the knot.
• heat up the hot glue gun. about 1" from the knot, glue together the center strands. use as little glue as possible to keep it clean.
• glue the outer strands to the center at the same distance from the knot. repeat on the other side.
• cut the ribbon into 2 pieces, about 2 1/2" long. try on the headband and determine where you want the knot to sit. i didn't want it centered, so the starting length was perfect for the longer side.

• trim all the cords on one side to the same length. glue together (this doesn't have to be super neat.)
• glue ribbon to the top side of the cords, along the bottom edge.
• run another line of glue along the bottom edge of the ribbon, and fold it back towards you. this will create a clean hem on the outside.

• flip the ribbon over. slide on the hair band.
• run a line of glue along the bottom edge, and fold it up to create a hem.
• fold the ribbon in half, and line up the top edges of the hems. glue the back hem to the cords.
• at each side of the ribbon, add a tiny bit of glue. pinch together the sides and trim off an excess glue.

• at this point, try on the headband again to figure out how much needs to be trimmed. i took about 4" off.
• repeat the same steps for finishing the ribbon on this side, looping the elastic through.