Reinforcing a headphone cord is a great way to protect the headphone cord and prevent the cord from curling or getting tangled.
I was recently working when I noticed that my headphone cord for work was starting to tangle. It was twisting together and becoming increasingly annoying to deal with. So, I decided it was time to do something about that.
My solution? Use embroidery thread to reinforce the headphone cord. The embroidery thread can help protect the cord while also making the cord thicker. This thickness can prevent the cord from twisting into a tangled mess.
As a bonus, I got to stylize my headphones and accessorize with some fun colors! Since I use these headphones for work, I decided to use my company colors to decorate the headphone cord. Alternating between yellow and red.
Check out the Craft section of MCG for more fun patterns in strings and things or more unlimited ideas.
Supplies
This is a very easy project that only really requires two things: headphones and embroidery thread. The number of colors that I used did technical increase the supplies for this project but that is only if I am getting technical. And I do like to get technical.
Process
The Base of the Cord
The first step of this process is immobilizing the headphone cord. This did not matter as much for my project since I was using over the ear headphones which have their own weight. Earbuds would be a different story. I would recommend using tape.
Then it is time to knot the embroidery thread around the cord! I started by tying a string of both colors around the top of the cord. This will cause both colors to be visible, but it should not matter too much to the overall aesthetic look.
Creating Knots
I picked the color that I wanted to start with and began to knot the project. If I had to describe how I did the knots, I would picture a 4. The base vertical line would be the headphone cord. The embroidery thread would bake the left and base sides of the right triangle off the 4. The end of the thread would then be wrapped around the vertical line and pulled through hole, going from the back to the front. And then it’s time to tighten.
This process was repeated until I had about an inch of the headphone cord covered with the only color. There is a protrusion where the knot meets the cord, and it does slowly wrap around the cord in a spiral like effect. I really like the way this looks but the knots can be pushed into position if desired (although this will take more time and effort).
To get the knots of the string to line up seamlessly when transitioning colors, the string that is being wrapper with the cord should be in the same position and the one being used to do the knotting. I swapped colors by just changing the position of the strings.
I repeated the process of one inch of red and then one inch of yellow until I made it all the way down the cord. This process is bother faster and slower than I anticipated.
Reflections
I liked doing this project. It was simple but felt like a good de-stressor. I was able to relax and just let my hands work. Especially since my brain did not have to do much thinking about this project. But even thought this is a simple project, the outcome really did help quite a bit! My cord stopped twisting which was a big relief to me as it had been one of my pet peeves for quite some time.
Lessons
Connecting Embroidery Threads
As I was covering the headphone cord, I realized that the strand of embroidery thread that I was using was not going to be long enough to cover the whole cord. This was predictable because a thread that could cover the cord would be unwieldy to work with. I found I had to extend the embroidery thread several times.
To do this, I used an “invisible” knot technique to bring the two strands together. I will talk about this in terms of strand A and strand B. I effectively started with the 4-style knot like before except stand A make up the whole of the 4. The tail end of Strand B is also inside the 4 hole. The knot is tightened.
This same step is done with strand B where the 4 is made from the whole of strand B but the tail end of Strand A is inside the 4 hole. The knot is tightened so that two knots and two ends are not visible.
As the tails of each end are pulled, the knots should move toward each other until they are basically melded. The knots did not show any sign of separation even as I continued to pull. I cut off the tails and the know was all that remained. But my threads were attached!
Quick Recipe
Headphone Cord Cover
Ingredients
- 1 Set Headphones
- 2 Skeins Embroidery any color, more colors can be used if desired
Instructions
- Cut 18” of embroidery thread in each desired color. Make a knot using all of the threads at the base of the headphones.
- Using one color, begin to knot around the cord, other embroidery colors, and all tails of the embroidery thread. Continue with this color for about one inch.
- Change to new color. Align the new color thread with the knot position of the previous color. Continue for another inch.
- Repeat the previous step until the entire cord is covered.
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