How to Make Your Own Scrunchies

To sew a simple scrunchie you will need fabric, a sewing machine, a safety pin, thread, scissors, and a thick rubber band. Scrunchies take about twenty to thirty minutes to complete and are an easy way to spruce up your hair accessories or craft a quick gift.

Cotton quilting fabric works best for sewing scrunchies. You can buy fat quarters at a sewing store or even Walmart a lot of the time. Fat quarters are a great way to get cute fabric and keep the cost of the overall project down. If you would like to purchase fabric by the yard, you will need less than a quarter yard to create a scrunchie.

Step 1 - Cut

Take your fabric and cut a long, skinny strip. This strip will be folded in half to create the width of your scrunchie, so cut accordingly. You can make this strip thick or thin, long or short. The longer the fabric, the more scrunch. The thicker the fabric, the thicker the final product. A good starting measurement to go off of is three and a half inches for width and fifteen inches for the length. For thicker hair, a thicker piece of fabric may work better.

Step 2 - Sew

After you’ve cut your fabric flip it so the pattern is on the inside and the outside is facing up. Then you are going to sew a straight line all the way down the side of the tube. Make sure that you backstitch three of four times on both ends of the tube. This is super important. After you sew down the side, cut off any excess fabric.

Once you’ve sewed the entire tube, flip it so the right side is out. This process can take a while, especially if your tube is really small. You can purchase a special tool to help you flip the tube, but it’s much more cost-effective to flip with your fingers.

Step 3 - Attach Band

After the tube has been flipped, take your rubber band and cut it. You can use any rubber band that you would like, but the basic, yellow rubber bands in the home office section of any store work great.

Attach a safety pin to the end of the rubber band and begin to thread it through the tube. This process can be a little tricky, and it’s important that you don’t let go of the rubber band and let it fall down the tube, If you do that, you can always pull it out the bottom, but you do have to start over.

Step 4 - Tie or Tuck

After you’ve scrunched the fabric tube as you pull the rubber band through, make sure to knot the rubber band together. Tie a double or triple knot, just to be safe. There are then two ways to finish off the scrunchie. You can take one end of the scrunchie and tuck it about one inch inside the other end of the scrunchie. This method is fast and really simple. Especially for beginners or young sewers, the tucking method may be a great place to start.

The second way you can finish the scrunchie also involves tucking. You take one end of the scrunchie and tuck it about half an inch into the other end. Then you take a needle and thread and stitch the opening closed by hand.

You can use matching thread and stitch small stitches along the outside, or you can attempt the invisible stitch. If you know how to do an invisible stitch, this would be a great place to give it a go. If you do not know how to do an invisible stitch, this would not be the place to start learning.

Other Sewing Projects

After you’ve tacked a trendy scrunchie, take a look at some of our other fun sewing projects like learning how to sew quilt batting, crafting a canvas bag, or even tackling a doll-themed sewing project.