Frugal Fabric Friday: #1

This week's project is an old classic the Hair Scrunchie.
Made from knit scraps (but could be woven) this is a gentle way to pull long hair back, and I find tends to pull less than a thread covered elastic. Being over 40 I tend to pick dark plain colours for my scrunchies so these stripes are a slight departure for me, but you can make them up in whatever you like.

There are 6 steps to this

1. Cut a piece of fabric aaprox 20" long and 4.5" wide. Cut a piece of 1/4" elastic 8-10" long depending on how tight you want the scrunchie.

2. Fold the piece of fabric in half lengthways with right sides together, and sew the long edges together, leaving a gap of approx 1.5" half way down. (Don't forget to leave the gap or you get in a mess later!)

3. Start to pull the tube right sides out, but stop halfway and align the short edges together. Stitch round the short edges in a circle.

4. Turn right side out through the hole left in the long edge.

5. Insert the elastic. I like to use 2 safety pins. A large one to thread the elastic through the tube and a small one to anchor the other end so it doesn't disappear. Knot the ends together or stitch the overlapping ends with a narrow zig zag stitch.

6. Tuck in the raw edges and stitch up the gap by hand or topstitched on the machine.

This can be made from knit or woven fabric, but avoid thick fabrics like denim, upholstery fabric etc, anything sheer (as you can see the elastic inside) and anything slippery like satin. Vary the size of the fabric and the length of elastic depending on how full you want the scrunchie to be. For small children you'd want to scale things down a bit.