Sewing

Sewing School: Scrunchies

August 26, 2022

This school year I want to do things a little differently with my cute crew. While I’m keeping our academics very simple for sustainability I am adding in a few extra fun “electives” this year that we haven’t done in the past. Here’s the thing though, we are only doing these electives once a month. I’m thinking this will be things like sewing, baking, nature hike, etc. It’s not that we won’t do these things other times in the month as they come up but I’m only setting the expectation that I will do them with a level of added intentionality once a month. That feels like a reasonable and sustainable amount of time to hold myself to. We’ll see how it goes. 🙂

This first month we did scrunchies for Sewing School. It’s such a simple, simple project but my girls LOVED it! They made a few extra to share with their little neighbor friends and now they have matching scrunchies running up and down the street every afternoon- so cute!

I plan to share our sewing projects and simple patterns on my blog this year too. So, here it is, the first edition of Sewing School: Scrunchies!

First up, here are the supplies you will need:

1/4 inch elastic at least 6-7 inches long (you’ll cut it to your desired length)
measuring tape
scissors
fabric at least 1 yard in length and 5 inches wide.
thread
safety pins
iron
1/2 inch ribbon (at least 36 inches long)

You’ll start out by cutting your fabric to get it ready. You’ll need a piece about 33 inches long and 5 inches wide.

Your fabric should look similar to this:

Next you’ll cut your elastic to your desired length. To measure our length I wrapped the elastic loosely around my daughter’s wrist (because she’ll want to wear it there too and I wouldn’t want it to be too tight.)

Make sure to allow a little extra length to sew together at the end.

The last material you’ll want to prepare is your ribbon. This is what we will use to turn the fabric inside out after sewing it. Make sure your ribbon is the length of your fabric plus a few inches more.

Next, you’ll fold the fabric over so that the right sides are together. (The right side is the side with the design you want to be seen.)

You can iron it flat to hold the fabric in place or use straight pins to hold the fabric in place.

Next you’ll sew a simple straight stitch down the open edge.

To keep your stitches straight align your fabric with the edge of the presser foot. As you sew keep an eye on the distance between the open edge and the presser foot. If you keep them together you’ll have a completely straight line down your fabric.

Now that you’ve sewn the length of the fabric you need to turn it right side out. To do this you’ll attach your length of ribbon to a large safety pin. You’ll scrunch the fabric around the pin as you press the pin all the way through the fabric. When the pin comes out of the other end there should still be a small length of ribbon poking out of the end you started on.

You’re almost there!

For the next step you’ll attach two safety pins to either end of the piece of elastic you’re using. Then, attach one of those safety pins to an open end of the scrunchies. Push the other pin through the fabric scrunching it up as you go.

It will look like this when you pull the pin through.

Next, you’ll sew the two pieces of elastic together. This is a more challenging part so if you’re doing this project with a child you’ll need to do the sewing here. If you can put a straight pin through the elastic horizontally it will hold the elastic together and you don’t have to remove it while you sew. This will make it a little easier. Be sure to back stitch the elastic firmly together.

Choose one of the sides to fold under. Fold about 1/2 an inch of fabric down into the scrunchie. Then you’ll smooth the other side and press it into the folded opening. If the fabric gets all bunched up it can make sewing difficult. Try to match the seams (where you sewed the scrunchie together) and press the fabric in flatly.

Then to finish the scrunchies you’ll stretch and bunch the fabric around the elastic to give it the scrunchie look and that’s it! You’ve completed your sewing project!

Once you’ve made one you may want to play around with the length of fabric, width of fabric, type of fabric, length of elastic etc. to make all kinds of scrunchies! Sewing is so much fun!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial! I always love seeing your projects and activities in action. If you snap a picture as you sew be sure to tag me on socials so I can share it too! @everydaylearnandplay on both IG and FB!

Join the Club!

Make learning both meaningful and magical! When you join the Learn + PLAY Club you’ll get immediate access to every single resource on my website! Activities for preschool through elementary age! Click here to learn more!