How to Sew a Scrunchie: Easy Home Project

Among so many wonderful projects kids make in their sewing classes or sewing camps, scrunchies remain their favorite project. They want to make scrunchies for themselves, their moms, aunts, friends – just everyone they can think of. It is not surprising at all because this little hair accessory is easy and fun to sew.

Since so many of our Petite Designers have made scrunchies before, we decided to make things interesting and offer you a new way to sew your favorite project. Let’s start, shall we?

To make a scrunchie, you will need:

1. Sewing machine

2. Cotton fabric

3. Matching thread

4. 1/8’’ elastic

5. Ruler, pencil, scissors

6. Pins, clips, safety pins

Step 1: Making a Pattern

Making a sewing pattern for your scrunchie is super easy. If you want to make a few of them, then you can build your pattern on a piece of paper, cut it out and then trace it on your fabric. We have it drawn on the fabric right away, but both ways are just fine. Whichever you prefer. You pattern will be a 4’’ x 22’’ rectangle. Make sure to check the corners. Corners have to be 90 degrees, then the parallel sides will be even and we will have a nicely shaped pattern.

Step 3: Cut the Fabric

Once you have finished drawing/tracing your rectangle on the fabric, it is time to cut it out. Remember what we always discuss in the classroom: your fabric should always stay on the table and you should hold it while cutting; the scissors should also touch the table as you cut. No lifting the fabric and cutting in the air!

Step 4: Finish the Edges

To make sure our edges are clean and beautiful and don’t fray, we will zigzag all around. On our Brother Project Runway machine, zigzag stitch comes under #4. Don’t fold the fabric: when zigzagging, we work with raw edges and stay as close to the edge as possible. Ideally, zigzag stitch wraps around the edge, in which case we get the best result.

Step 5: Sew a Tube

Now it is time for us to sew a tube! We are going to fold our fabric in half with the right/good sides of the fabric facing each other and stitch along the long edge. Before we do that, it could be helpful to draw a straight line right under the zigzag where we will later stitch. Also, we won’t connect the two sides of the fabric completely. Leave a 1.5’’ space on each side of the fabric. We will close those sides later.

Once you have your line in place, let's make sure to choose the right setting on our sewing machine. Set your machine for a basic stitch (#01) and make it a little longer (3.0 instead of 2.5). When you make your stitch longer, it is easier to redo it if needed. Stitch from the beginning to the end of the line, leaving 1.5’’ unstitched on both ends. Security stitch at the beginning and the end.

Step 5: Turn the Tube Inside Out

Now that you have stitched the two sides of your fabric together, we need to turn the tube inside out. Take a large safety pin and pin it through the fabric on the fold line (the line where your fabric was folded in half, opposite to the side where you were just stitching). When the pin is in, close it and move it so the head of the pin goes inside of the tube first. Start pushing the pin through the tube. Make sure to straighten the fabric as you go, otherwise too much fabric will gather, which will make it harder to turn it inside out. If you have made your drawstring bags or skirt, you know what to do.

Step 6: Stitch the Short Sides Together

Our next step is to connect the two sides of the tube together. You can do it by aligning the short ends of your tube and stitching them together with a basic stitch. Security stitch at the beginning and the end.

Step 7: Working with the Elastic

Here comes our favorite part of our favorite sewing project – putting elastic in the tube. You can use your wrist as a measurement for the elastic since this is where we normally wear our scrunchies when we don’t need them.

Cut a piece of elastic. You can use a 1/8'' elastic or a folding elastic like the one we have in this picture. Put a large safety pin through. With the safety pin in, start pushing your elastic inside of the tube. As soon as your elastic fully hides in the tube, pin the other end of your elastic to the edge of the tube. That end cannot move as only this way we can really scrunch it up.

Once that second end of the elastic has been pinned, keep pushing your safety pin through the tube until both ends meet.

Since your elastic is so much shorter than the tube, the fabric will nicely gather and give you that beautiful scrunchie shape you were looking for.

Now you need to sew two ends of your elastic together. The best way to do it is to place one end of the elastic on top of the other one and security stitch. Alternatively, you can tie a knot. Just make sure it is secure and won't fall apart once you start using your lovely scrunchie.

Step 8: Close the Gap

One last step – closing our scrunchie. Do you remember that we left 1.5’’ unstitched on both ends of our tube? Now we need to close that gap. First, as always, we need to make sure that no zigzag stitch is showing, so we will tuck in the edges. When this is done, put the two edges together and sew with a basic stitch along the opening. Try to stay as close to the side as possible to have a sleek look of your scrunchie.

YOUR SEWING PROJECT IS FINISHED!

Congratulations! Your new hair accessory is ready and looks amazing. Now you can make as many as you want and surprise your family and friends with these lovely gifts you made yourself.

If you have any questions about this project or would like to learn more, contact us and we will be super excited to prepare more fun things for you.