Over recent months I've started to use dry shampoo and can't believe I've only discovered this wonderful product now. So with my new found love of dry hair shampoo, the need to wash my hair daily has decreased so I thought a shower cap would be a great sewing project. I did my usual world wide web search and found these great blogs by Junie Moon - One Yard Adventure: Shower Cap Tutorial and SewDelish - Some Sewing - How to Make a Shower Cap - Tutorial - links below:
http://junie-moon.blogspot.com.au/2008/08/one-yard-adventure-shower-cap-tutorial.html?m=1
http://sewdelish.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/some-sewing-shower-cap-mini-tutorial.html?m=1
I assembled all my equipment and started to make the shower cap (see tutorials above for this information). The first challenge was how big was my head?? I got out the tape measure and measured it - it was around 22" (is that big??). After reading the tutorial to calculate how much fabric I'd need I added a buffer of two inches to this to ensure there was enough fabric to fold over and still fit my head.
Tools for the circle |
Circle outline |
The second challenge was how do I make a perfect circle? After thinking about what I had in the house, I got a large piece of paper, string and a pen. I folded the paper into quarters, cut the string to 12", tied the string around the pen and drew the circle. I then cut the circle out of the paper and laid this on top of the fabric and used my rotary cutter to go around the fabric. I did this for both the waterproof lining and outer fabric.
Paper circle on fabric |
Cut fabric - ready to stitch |
Pinned fabric |
All pinned and ready I went back to the sewing machine and started to sew...this is when my patience was well and truly tested. At first I could not understand how to follow the circle - I kept having straight lines! So after a lot of unpicking and re-ironing I started again. This time, I realised I had to nip in little bits as I went round in order to make the circle. I was very pleased with myself that I had worked this out! So feeling confident, I was merrily sewing when disaster struck.... I ran out of thread - how could I run out of thread????
AAHHHHHH!! |
With no thread my shower cap project came to an abrupt end - I couldn't get over how annoyed at myself I was so top tip: always have a spare thread!
A few weeks later, armed with mountains of thread, I carried on with this project... I had mastered how to do the circle and went around the one inch hem (leaving a two inch space so the elastic could be thread around) and stitched around the outer edge. I cut the elastic to 20 inches long, put a safety pin at the end and thread it through. At this point I found it tricky, so I will explain how I overcame the challenge.
When threading the elastic, pin one end at the opening. Use a safety pin on the
Pinned ends |
I was so pleased at what I achieved making this. It may seem simple and the tutorials are detailed and easy to follow, but for someone who is new to the sewing bug it used lots of different skills and own initiative to complete this. My next project involve zips so lets see where this takes me!
Hint and tips
- Equipment: Paper, string, pen, iron, cutting board, rotary cutter, water-proof fabric, fabric scissors, pins, safety pins, needles, THREAD, elastic and a sewing machine
- Check what you have in your sewing box...I double check everything now so I don't run out of thread again!
- Research - find a tutorial that works for you
- Patience - I do mention this every time, but it is important. I did take me a good 3-4 weeks to carry on with this project, but I'm so pleased I did as I love what I've made!
Happy Stitching x
Finished shower cap! |
This is such a great tutorial! I remember when I found dry shampoo, the first thing I did was go out to fling a shower cap. I like the pattern on my store bought cap but now I think I need to make a unique one with a pattern I pick out.
ReplyDeleteHellcat Vintage
Thanks... let me know how you get on x
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