Easy Boho Braided Hemp Twine Flower Headband Tutorial

Do you ever wonder where people get their pretty flower headbands that you see at concerts and music festivals around the world? It seems like everywhere you turn at a summer event these days, you see these airy, feminine, bohemian style headbands.

They look great on anyone, from young children to aging hippies, and from people with pixie haircuts to hair down below their waists.

I love flower headbands. They get you in the mood for a lovely summer show, an afternoon wedding, or even playing around in the garden. They're just fun.

Whatever the occasion, they are incredibly easy to make, taking only about half an hour if you have all of the supplies.

For this piece I used hemp twine, which has a lovely natural color and texture. Best of all, it's easy to braid. I also used silk flowers that I had on hand. With these items, and a glue gun, you're ready.

What sets this one apart from many others is the sliding knot on the back. It allows you to make the headband larger or smaller, simply by gently pulling on the ends.

• Various silk flowers
• Hemp twine - I used this 20lb natural cord and it was perfect
• Glue gun and glue sticks
• Scissors

Cut three pieces of twine, each one 60 inches long. That may seem long, but the braiding really shortens it up.

Lining up the three strands equally, tie a knot, 20 inches in from one end. This will be the starting point of your braid.

Make a braid, going down the longer portion of twine, until you reach the point where there are 20 inches left of unbraided twine.

Tie a knot at the end of the braid to secure.

You will have a long piece of twine with braiding in the center and two tails at each end, measuring approximately 20" each (see photo below).

Flatten out the braid and gently tug to straighten it out.

Most silk flowers heads are attached to the wire stem with a plastic head. It's easy to just pull them off. Discard the wire stems, or keep them for another project.

If the ones you choose don't easily pull off, cut off close to the base of the flower head, leaving about a 1/4 inch stem for easy glueing.

For the glueing process, use a protected surface. I put paper towels on top of a newspaper. Be careful using the glue gun. The glue gets extremely hot.

Decide where to place the flowers and, using a glue gun, carefully apply a dollop of glue to the twine where you want the first flower to be.

Once the flower is set, add a little bit more glue to the top of the stem just to make sure the flower is secure.

Hold the flower for about 20 seconds while the glue sets.

Repeat the process with the rest of the flowers.

When the glue is cool, but not completely hard, trim off any wisps of glue or sharp glue edges.

Set piece aside to cool completely.

Tie knots at both ends of the headband, as close to the ends as possible.

Pull tightly to secure the knot.

Adding the sliding knot is a tricky process at first, but once you get the hang of it, it goes pretty smoothly. I have a link to a terrific video which helped me immensely. But if you like still photos, here they are.

1. On a flat surface, overlap the ends of the headband.
2. Cut a piece of twine, about 8 or 9 inches long and form a loop on the left side (a). The loop should have a shorter end and a longer one.
3. In your left hand, hold the headband with the overlapping ends and place the loop of twine on top.

Next:

1. Taking the long end of the loop of twine (a), start looping around the headband, repeating 5 or 6 times.
2. Take the end of the remaining long loop of twine and feed it through all of the loops, coming out the other end.
3. Pull gently on the two ends of the loop string. One will be on the right of the knot, and the other will be on the left. Use care not pull too hard or it will be hard to adjust the size of the headband later.

Next:

1. Once you've finished pulling the ends of the loop string they need to be knotted.
2. Form a knot as close as possible to the sliding knot. Tug firmly, then snip the end.
3. Repeat on the other side.

If you prefer a video tutorial for making the sliding knot, I have included one from Jewelry Tutorial Headquarters below. It demonstrates the process quite well.

Your headband is ready to wear and can be easily adjusted to fit any head by just gently pulling on the ends.

It's amazing how different a headband feels with the use of various flowers. The soft pink in the photo below would be perfect for an outdoor wedding or baby shower.

While you can wear any color for any occasion, here some color/flower ideas to give you some inspiration.