Easy DIY Bat Ears Headband FREE Pattern and Tutorial

by

Leggi questo post in: Italiano

I just love easy handmade Halloween costumes, so I try to make a new one (or part of one) each year. Last year I shared my easy DIY bat wings tutorial and free pattern and this year I’ve got the matching easy DIY bat ears headband tutorial and free pattern for you!

This DIY bat ears headband tutorial is super easy and quick – with a glue gun and 10 minutes you’ll have the perfect accessory to your handmade animal costume or cosplay getup!

Cucicucicoo is mainly a sewing blog, but I wanted to make this a “quick and easy satisfaction” project, so they are no-sew, opting instead for the glue gun to put it together.

Make your DIY bat costume amazing with this handmade bat ears headband! So simple and requires no sewing, so you can whip it up in 10 minutes or less with some felt and a glue gun!

Want a few more reasons why this is the best bat ears tutorial? Well, here they are:

  1. the hidden wire inside allows you to model and curve the ears to a more natural or interesting shape,
  2. because it’s a no-sew project, you can make these from start to finish in 10 minutes or less,
  3. there is a free pattern for the bat ears, but you could very easily modify it to create ears for any animal or creature, making this tutorial perfect for a myriad of Halloween and cosplay costumes!
Make your DIY bat costume amazing with this handmade bat ears headband! So simple and requires no sewing, so you can whip it up in 10 minutes or less with some felt and a glue gun!

So, are you ready to get started making your DIY bat ears headband? Great! Either watch the video below (or here on YouTube) or just continue to read below!

Click to save this Cucicucicoo.com project on Pinterest!

Materials for the DIY bat ears headband

Materials for making easy, no-sew bat ears

Note: Any of the following links with an asterisk* are affiliate links which help fund this website. When you click, you will not spend anything extra, but I earn a small percentage. I cannot see what you clicked nor which products you have seen. Please read my affiliate link disclosure for more information.

(My free patterns are available to all Cucicucicoo Newsletter subscribers. The Newsletter is usually sent out every two weeks (or sometimes less frequently) and you can unsubscribe whenever you want. Sign up for the Newsletter here for access to dozens of free downloads, templates and patterns! If you are already subscribed, just look at the bottom of the last Newsletter you received for the link and password.)

GET THE FREE PATTERN!
Sign up for the Cucicucicoo Newsletter. You’ll receive an email with a link to click to confirm your subscription. After you click it, you will receive another email with the link and password to the private area with the free downloads.
If you’re already subscribed, click on this link and insert the password. You can find the password in your Newsletter welcome e-mail or at the bottom of any Cucicucicoo Newsletter. If you still cannot find the password, put your email address in this form and you’ll receive an email with the current password.

(If you’d prefer receiving the free pattern and newsletter in Italian, just sign up here instead!)

How to make an easy DIY bat ears headband

I only had white headbands, so I covered them with felt to match the ears. If your headband is already black, you can skip directly to the “Make the bat ears” section further down.

Cover the headband with felt

Cover a headband with black felt to make DIY ears for a costume

1. Measure around the headband with a flexible measuring tape. (picture A) Then measure the distance from one end to the other. Mine was 2.5 cm around and 36.5 cm long.

2. Cut out a strip from the same black fabric as the ears. The width should be the same as the measurement around the headband while the length should be about 2 centimeters longer than the headband length. Thus, my strip measured 2.5 cm wide and 39 cm long. (picture B)

Cover a headband with black felt to make DIY ears for a costume

3. Heat up the glue gun and put a little bit of glue on the top of the headband at one end. Center one end of the felt strip over the glue, making sure that the edge goes about 1 cm beyond the end of the headband. Press the strip down with your fingers.

4. Continue to add glue to the top of the headband, bit by bit, and press the felt down on to it. (pictures C and D)

Cover a headband with black felt to make DIY ears for a costume

5. Now put a little bit of glue on the bottom of the headband at one end (picture E) and fold the long edges of felt inwards so that they meet at the center. (picture F)

6. Continue like this, bit by bit, for the entire length of the headband. Be careful not to burn your fingers on the hot glue!

Cover a headband with black felt to make DIY ears for a costume

7. There will still be some extra fabric that goes over the ends of the headband. (picture G) If one or both ends are excessively long, just trim them down so that there’s no more than 1 cm extra. I had to trim the side that you can see on the right.

8. Place a dot of glue at the very end of the bottom of the headband, on top of the folded felt (picture H) and fold the end of felt over towards the inside. If you want, you can put a clip over it to keep it pressed down while it dries.

Headband covered in black felt, ready to get ears attached

9. Now your headband is all covered and ready to get ears added to it! (picture I)

Make and attach the bat ears

Cut out the bat ears from black felt with the free Cucicucicoo pattern

10. Print the pattern without re-sizing it (at 100% size) and cut it out along the line with craft scissors.

11. Fold the felt in half and pin the pattern on it (picture J). Then cut the fabric around the pattern (picture K).

Cut out the bat ears from black felt with the free Cucicucicoo pattern

12. Unpin the fabric and separate the two layers so that you have two mirrored pieces. (picture L)

Glue florist wire around the inside edge of the bat ear

13. Use the craft pliers to bend over the tip of the florist’s wire (picture M), then squeeze tight to press the tip together.

14. Bend the wire so that it goes around the inside edge of the ear, starting from a couple of centimeters beyond the center part between the two halves. When you get 2 cm beyond the center on the other edge, cut the wire with craft scissors and fold the tip over with pliers, as in step 13. (picture N)

It was difficult for me to get still images of this step. If you don’t quite understand, you can watch this part of the video tutorial on YouTube, starting from minute 7:41, to get a better idea of how to do it.

Wrap the wire inside the ear around the headband

15. Position the headband over the wires going through the center part of the felt. The fabric needs to be a little bit down from the top center with the wider curve downwards. (See picture O to get an idea of how.)

16. Bend the wire ends around the headband. (pictures O and P)

How to attach bat ears to headband

17. I forgot to get a photo of this step, but it’s quite easy. Use the glue gun to put glue over all the wire, including the ends twisted around the headband. Then fold the bottom half of the ear up so that the edges match with the top half and press them together well so that they’ll stick together. (picture Q)

18. Repeat steps 13-17 with the other ear, remembering to position it mirrored, with the bigger curve downwards. (picture R)

Trim the edges of the handmade felt bat ears

19. There are your bat ears! (picture S) Check the edges of the two ears; if there are parts where the glue inside is relatively far from the cut edges so that the two layers separate and open easily, put a small dot of hot glue between the layers and press the edges together. Be careful not to let the glue squeeze out from the inside!

20. Most likely the edges of the felt ears will be a big ragged or won’t match up perfectly in every point. If so, use fabric scissors to trim the edges to a smooth edge. (picture T)

Adjust the shape of the handmade headband ears by modeling the wire inside.

21. You can wear your DIY bat ears headband like that or you can make them more realistic by bending the inside wire with your fingers in order to form more natural curves and cupped shapes. (pictures U and V)

Step up your Halloween costume with this easy DIY bat ears headband! No sewing necessary, and it’s perfect for other animal handmade ears or for homemade cosplay costumes!

And you’re done!

Wasn’t that so quick and easy? And it really makes a bat costume so much more complete and fun!

This DIY bat ears headband tutorial is super easy and quick – with a glue gun and 10 minutes you’ll have the perfect accessory to your handmade animal costume or cosplay getup!

I created this pattern in the shape of a typical bat ear (although the shape can vary greatly according to bat species), but you can easily modify it to make any animal ear! I’ve already been thinking about making these into cat ears, but it would be really simple to make them smaller and at a different angle for Batman ears or circles for Mickey Mouse ears! There are also so many other characters with ears in the world of comics and video games that you could do this with if you love cosplay! What type of ears would you make?

Check out these great Halloween tutorials!

Do you want all the new sewing techniques and cool modern craft projects, in addition to this DIY bat ears headband FREE pattern? Then sign up for the Cucicucicoo Newsletter here for access to dozens of free printables!

Click to save this Cucicucicoo.com project on Pinterest!

Click here to save this project on Pinterest!

Step up your Halloween costume with this easy DIY bat ears headband! No sewing necessary, and it’s perfect for other animal handmade ears or for homemade cosplay costumes!

4 thoughts on “Easy DIY Bat Ears Headband FREE Pattern and Tutorial”

Leave a Comment