How to make a scrunchie

There are two benefits to making your own scrunchies, you can customize them and they are cost effective. This is an easy step by step tutorial on how to make a scrunchie, with lots of pictures!

Scrunchies have made a comeback! As an 80’s, child I remember the scrunchie craze back then, but now, my daughter is into scrunchies. If you wait long enough, fashion always comes full circle.

Recently, my daughter and I went shopping at several stores. She was on the hunt for the perfect scrunchie, but just couldn’t find what she was looking for.

I told her, “why don’t we just make a scrunchie?” At that very moment, her eyes lit up, and she said, “You know how to make scrunchies?!” My cool factor as a mom went through the roof.

This tutorial came out of that shopping trip.

Why make your own scrunchie?

For starters, when you buy a scrunchie, you are at the mercy of the manufacturer. Basically meaning, they choose the scrunchies. This can be challenging when you are looking for something particular. But, when you make your own scrunchie, you get to choose the fabric.

For this tutorial, we used an old shirt. My daughter rescued it from the goodwill pile. Bonus, we were able to use the elastic in the sleeves. No waste!

And what about prices? Have you seen the prices of scrunchies? I just have a hard time paying for $4 dollars or more for a scrunchie that I could make for pennies, or even better, for free! This is just how my mind works.

Lastly, making a scrunchie is the perfect beginner project for practicing sewing skills. Getting my daughter involved in making her own scrunchie is teaching her basic sewing skills that she can build upon in the future.

Alright, let’s get started. You only need a minimal amount of tools and if you can find some cute fabric from old clothing, you may not have to purchase a thing!

Tools for making a scrunchie

• sewing machine
• safety pin
• straight pins
• scissors

Materials for making a scrunchie

• fabric (no more than 1 1/2 ‘ x 10″)
• matching thread
• elastic

How to make a scrunchie

The first step is choosing a fabric. If you are a beginner I recommend using a cotton fabric. In this tutorial, my daughter chose a slinkier fabric that is harder to work with. This took more time.

Next, grab the elastic. We just happened to pick a shirt that had elastic in the sleeve and we were able to cut it out of the sleeve and re-use it.

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Wrap the elastic around your wrist to measure how tight or loose you want the scrunchie to be. Make sure to add about 1/2 ” as a seam allowance. Basically, enough space to sew the elastic together.

Once you have measured the elastic, cut it. Use the elastic to measure how long the fabric needs to be. The fabric should be almost double the length of the elastic.

For the width, decide how wide you want the scrunchie to be (my daughter likes hers wide) and double it because you will fold it over to sew. Also, leave about 1/4″ for seam allowance. Basically, you’re cutting out a rectangle and the great part is you control how big and fluffy you want it to be.

Next, take the rectangle of fabric you just cut and grab the long side and fold it over to the other long side. The right sides will be facing each other.

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Now, pin along the edge and sew.

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Once you are finished sewing, take a safety pin and secure it to one end. Push the safety pin through the tube and pull on the fabric as you go. This will turn the fabric to the right side.

Next, take off the safety pin and secure it to the end of the elastic and push that through the tube. Make sure you hold on to one end as you do this.

Now, take the two ends of the elastic and overlap them, making sure the elastic isn’t twisted, and pin. Take it to your sewing machine and sew them together using a zig zag stitch.

Lastly, take one of the fabric ends, fold the fabric inside the tube to hide the raw edge and pin.

Next, take the other end of the fabric and push it into the side you just pinned so that there are no raw edges showing. Hold it securely and sew on the folded edge in a straight line.

And, you are done! These scrunchies are easy to make, and, if you can find some scrap fabric, they are free! Hey, who doesn’t like free stuff?