How to Make a Scrunchie

Making scrunchies is the perfect way to use up all the skinny fabric scraps in your stash. Whip up a bunch, and stick them in your gift closet for easy gift-giving.

This is an easy beginner’s project, and it only takes 10-15 minutes to make a scrunchie. Here’s how to make one.

How to Make a Scrunchie

What You’ll Need:

Fabric (cotton, velvet, knit, fleece, etc.)
1/4″ elastic
A ruler
A rotary cutter and cutting mat (optional)
Scissors
Sewing pins or sewing clips
(2) Safety pins
Thread
A sewing machine (This is the machine that I have)

What You Do:

Cut out a 4-1/2″ x 26″ piece of fabric. This will give you a nice, full scrunchie that still scrunches, even after you’ve wrapped it around your hair a couple times.

If you have shorter lengths of fabric that you’d like to use, anything 22 inches, or longer, will work.

Fold one of the short ends over 1/2 inch, and hem it in place.

Then, fold the fabric in half lengthwise, with the right sides facing. Secure with pins or clips; then, sew a 1/4-inch seam along the long side.

Flip the finished tube right side out.

Then, cut a 7-inch length of elastic, and affix a safety pin to one end. I like to use sewing clips instead because they’re a smidge faster to attach and remove.

Feed the end of the elastic with the safety pin or clip into one end of your tube, and attach the other end of the elastic to the top of the tube with a second pin or clip.

Use the pin or clip that’s inside the tube to work the elastic through to the other end.

While holding the two ends of the elastic, carefully remove the pins or clips. Then, overlap the two pieces of elastic, and hold them together with a sewing clip or clothespin.

Use a zig zag stitch to sew the two ends together. I set my stitch length to 6, and go back and forth over the elastic several times (usually three complete passes).

Some people simply tie the two ends together, so that’s another option, if you find stitching them together to be a bit tricky. It’s one of those tasks that would be easier, if you had three hands. But it gets easier, after you make a few.

Take a second to line up the seam all the way around; it tends to get twisted, while you’re working. I prefer to place my seam on the outside of the scrunchie, but you can place it on the inside, if you’d rather hide it.