Ms. Cottage Way Of Life was seeking my aid in adding to her Lolita fashion collection, some girly headbands would be nice. "I've got just the thing," I said, "I've been exploring Kanzashi, headbands could be made that would fit right into the Lolita thing."
So, dear readers, I thought you might like to see what I came up with because it would be a dandy idea for a quick, handmade, Christmas present that I'm sure any headband-wearer on your list would love. And really, it costs very little but looks great. You probably even have the supplies just laying around the house.

Kanzashi are traditional Japanese hair ornaments. The kind I am specifically referring to are fashioned from folded pieces of fabric that are assembled to look like a flower. They look complicated but they are super easy and pretty fast to make.

You start out with squares of fabric. You don't need a whole lot of fabric, nice size scraps would do.

The squares are then folded until they resemble what you see in the photo above.

After you make enough individual petals (how many depends on how full you want your flower to be), you sew them together with strong thread (I used carpet thread that I waxed).

Once the petals are all strung together you fluff them out and they resemble the flowers you see in the above photo.

Then you need to glue a circle of fabric on the back of the flower (to hide the raw edges and stabilize the flower) and something decorative (I used vintage buttons) in the middle of the flower front (also to hide raw edges).

Affix a few of the finished flowers to a headband with a strong fabric glue (I used Fabri-Tac glue).

And voilà, super cute headband perfect for present-giving!
You'll find a tutorial on how to fold the Kanzashi petals here.

































