March Madness Pom-Pom headband tutorial

I realize I've been MIA for a while and I'll update y'all on that in a bit. For now, I hope you enjoy this tutorial saluting the greatness that is March Madness.

I don't know about you, but the fever is spreading at our house and the culprit is March Madness! We recently had the opportunity to go to the Big South championship game at the new Kimmel Arena in Asheville, NC. UNC Asheville, our alma mater, would take on VMI. I knew that all the kids needed to get in on the action. Lou had his UNCA shirt that Grammy gave him. I sewed E a shirt in Bulldog blue out of one of my t-shirts. The hubby was out of town and I made it the morning of the game so upon close examination it is rough to say the least, but he loved it and it fit just fine.

I had to decide what to make for Buddha. I knew that I'd be wearing her in her Ergo so her outfit wouldn't be seen. I narrowed it down to a headband or a hat. I chose to make it out of old t-shirts for the upcycling factor, the ease of jersey knit, and it reminded me of pom poms. I had both white and blue t-shirts in my upcycle pile so I grabbed em and got to work.

To minimize sewing I chose to make a headband. I only needed the sleeves of the t-shirts so I have lots left over to show our team spirit in the future. Because Buddha is only 7 months I had to cut off a little of the length of the sleeve. Depending on the size of the shirt and the size of your kiddo's noggin you may be able to get away with leaving the length in tact and then not have to sew a new seam. I made my headband about 2 inches wide. I used a well-fitting headband to determine the length of my band, however, it had a bit more stretch than my t-shirt so I added a little to my band. I ended up cutting off about 2 inches to make it short enough to fit snugly.

I then cut several strips from both the blue and white t-shirt sleeves. I placed a strip across the band to determine how long to make each of the small strips for the pom pom. I decided to make them 4 inches long. I got 4 strips from each of the long white strips (2 from the front of the sleeve and 2 from the back). The blue shirt was slightly smaller so I only got 3 strips out of each long strip.

Since the white strips stand out more than the blue I decided to do the entire first layer in blue. I lined up the strips so that they overlapped slightly until they made a circle.

For the second layer I alternated white and blue strips until I again had a complete circle.

I was happy with the results, but knew it needed some embellishment in the middle where I would attach it to the band. A bulldog would be cute, but since I don't keep those in my stash I chose a button instead.

I turned the right sides of the band together and then sewed the ends together. I attached it to the band through the button.

And here it is in action - or inaction, I guess. You can use any team colors to show your school spirit. I LOVE how it turned out. What do you think? How do you get your kids cheering for your favorite team? (Please ignore the date on some of these photos. I am borrowing a camera and couldn't figure out how to turn off the date stamp and it kept resetting so I finally gave up. I have since figured it out and turned it off.)