My Needlepoint Hat Band Project

So glad the weekend is here. The days just fly by but the weekends fly by even faster.  When my father retired he told me that now every day is Saturday and every night is Friday night.  He was right but that's not true for me unfortunately. 

I thought I would try and make a needlepoint hat band. It's an easy project. Here's how you can make your own.  I was going to wear my new hat and hat band in Kentucky when we were going to go to Keeneland earlier this month.  Since that was not going to happen the project was slowed a little bit.  But it is coming along now.  I will share my finished product once it's all completed.

1) Order Needlepoint Canvas
I ordered mine on Etsy.  You should use 18 mesh canvas.  And you don't need much.  You can order here.

2) Buy Hat 

I bought my hat from Target.com.  You may already have a hat that will work but you'll need to know how long to make your hat band. This one was inexpensive and I'll take off the black ribbon. See it here.

3) Create Pattern for Your Band

I decided to use a pattern from a very old needlepoint belt for mine.  But there are tons of things out there you can use.  Pinterest is a great source.  Here are some of the patterns I have been saving (all on my Pinterest site):

4) Buy Ribbon 

I bought my ribbon pre-pandemic luckily.  So you'll have to be creative in finding ribbon.  Buy ribbon the same width as your finished band.  Walmart used to have ribbon.  Most craft stores will have it and Etsy is another place.  I prefer grosgrain ribbon. You ndon't need a lot - the length of your hat band -plus enough to tie it.

5) Finishing

I have not gotten to the finishing part obviously.  I have a glue gun which I will use.  The band needs some strength, so I will add belt backing to the back of  my band and will roll the finished canvas one or two rows on each side.  You can buy this at places like Walmart or Michaels.  I am going to glue my ribbon as I don't think my sewing machine will sew through the needlepoint canvas (but it might and I will try that first) and the ribbon.  You can also send it out to have a finisher complete this process.  See an option here.

Here are some hat bands up close.....

You can also add a piece of cording like in the photo above and use smaller ribbons. The stores in Virginia that carry this sort of thing near me are closed so I won't be able to be that creative this time around.  But I have a feeling I will be making hat bands for gifts for friends in the future........

This is an easy and fun project you can do now. I love making stuff like this from scratch.  Be creative and experiment.  Would love to see your hat bands in a few months!