Bandanas

I lost a lot of hair last year, and I am still not sure if it was the chemo drugs or the anemia or a combination of both. The chemo only has “thinning of the hair” listed as a side effect, and it is growing back slowly but still looks very patchy. So I started wearing bandanas around the time we went to New Zealand.

I have a few very traditional bandanas in black and grey, so not exactly cheerful. They were okay in New Zealand as I was wearing my big floppy hat as sun protection most of the time on top of it anyway. I looked around in New Zealand gift shops but couldn’t find any kind of similar scarf that I could use as a bandana. The ones they called bandanas – and they had some very pretty designs – were actually tubes made from some kind of polyester knit. These didn’t work for me as I need a square that I can tie around my head. I contemplated cutting open one of those tubes and hemming the cut edges. I don’t have a serger but was fairly certain that one of my friends has one (she does, and I would be welcome to use it anytime). I ended up buying one of those knit tubes but eventually decided not to bother with the cutting and hemming.

Instead I said to my husband that it should be fairly easy to just hem a square piece of cotton and call it a bandana. And I could go to any quilt shop and choose any quilting cotton I liked and make cheerful head coverings that I like wearing and that don’t look like I am trying to blend into the background. He agreed, and when we walked into the next quilt shop, he pulled a bolt of Nutex Kiwi Express off the shelf and declared this would make a great bandana. I loved the fabric, we bought some, and after our return I made my first bandana from it.

According to the internet, the average bandana size is 22″. I cut 23″ and do a rolled hem of 1/2″ twice all around. If you are like me and can never remember how to correctly do the corners on a rolled hem, I found this excellent tutorial. It is as easy as it looks – you just have to be really neat about your markings and measurements. Then it all falls into place.

The second bandana I made was from one of the New Zealand fabrics that I used for backings. This one is Nutex Te Koripi Wae O Maui, and I bought extra, knowing I would love to make a bandana from this.

Now I have a rule that I only allow myself to buy fabric when I know what I am going to make with it. I implemented this rule when I worked at the quilt shop more than ten years ago. Otherwise I would have bought everything! I walked through Cozy Cottons the other day and saw a simple blue fabric with allover tossed dots that I really liked. But what to do with it? Then I realized that I had bought a cardigan in Germany in a very similar blue, so of course I could just make a matching bandana, right? Right??

Just a few caveats, in case you want to make one yourself. If you use a directional fabric, you have to pay attention to how you fold it before you tie it. I ended up with the birds of Kiwi Express upside down. With non-directional fabric it doesn’t matter at all which corner you fold over. These are also stiffer than traditional bandanas, and unless you use a batik, they have a very obvious right and wrong side. I still feel they work really well. In fact, the stiffness gives it a bit more stand and shape when you wrap it around your head, and I prefer wearing my handmade squares over the commercial bandanas I own.