This DIY tutorial will walk you though making a uniform flower headband that can be customized to any size! 

This year is our daughter’s first 4th of July and I wanted to make her something special out of one of daddies old uniforms. We have a lot of “old” uniforms that were ruined when my dear husband decided to wash his uniform with pens still in the pocket!

All you need is part of an old uniform (blouse or pants are fine), a decorative elastic, a sewing machine, thread, scissors, soft measuring tape, pins, something small and circular to trace, and an uniform button.

First thing to do is find the piece of old uniform you are planning on working with. I recommend using an area without pockets. I used a piece of the back of an old blouse. Lay out the piece of uniform and trace your circular item. I used the lid of a mason jar! You need a total of 6 circles. I made my 6 circles by tracing 3 and then folding the uniform in half and cut around my tracing. This way I got 2 circles per each traced circle.

Now you need to turn each circle into a petal to create the uniform flower. Take one circle and fold it in half, right side facing out, then fold it in half again and pin to hold it in place. Repeat this for all 6 circles. Take each petal and sew along the bottom point.

Next you want to attach the petals into groups of two. You will lay them just overlapping their two points. So they look almost like a little bow tie. You will not be able to pin these together, so you will have to line them up and use the foot of your sewing machine & your hands to hold them in place.

Next you will overlap the 3 bow ties. Start with two and lay them on top of each other, just make sure they are a little offset. Then sew them together alone the stitch. Repeat with the 3rd bow tie. Just be VERY careful. If you have a heavy duty needle I recommend changing to that needle. I broke my needle while sewing the 3 bow ties together.

Now with a needle and thread, you want to attach the button to the middle of your uniform flower to hide your stitches. When doing this, you don’t need to sew through all the layers. Pick the smallest area to put the needle through! After I was finished and tried it on my little one, the button moved a little so I secured it with a dab of super glue under the button.

Now to make the headband part. Take your decorative elastic and cut it to size. To find the perfect size measure around your head (or child’s head) to find the circumference of where you want the headband to sit. Now take that number and subtract 1inch. Take the two ends of the elastic and sew them together! When attaching the uniform flower to the headband, you wan tot pull a bottom layer to one of the petals and run sew the elastic to the petal. I recommend placing your elastic seam in the middle of your flower, so it looks seamless when it is worn.

If you wanted you could use a strong glue to attach your uniform flower to a hair clip instead of turning it into a headband…This works great for older kids, or little ones with lots of hair!