Fabric Craft Tutorial: How to Make Scrunchies DIY

Do you want to make fabric scrunchies that are unique and personalized? Creating your own DIY scrunchies can be a fun and rewarding project. You can find the perfect fabric for any outfit and enjoy the process of designing. If something doesn’t seem right, like the length of the elastic, you can easily adjust it. 

This project is suitable for beginners and doesn’t require much fabric, making it ideal for using up scrap material. While there may be some imperfections, the charm of handmade scrunchies lies in their individuality. Let me show you how to make scrunchies DIY with elastic that are even nicer than store-bought ones, with a unique technique that ensures a professional finish.

Also, there are no complicated techniques involved so the project is pretty simple.

When you make your own scrunchies, it’s almost inevitable that there will be some imperfections. It doesn’t matter if they are just small things like a crooked seam or wider cut pieces of fabric – even the best handmade items have flaws. 

And sometimes our projects fall short, right?  Threads showing through the seams; uneven stitches which leave puckering marks behind; poor quality threads breaking after the first use… so keep an eye out. Try to avoid these problems by paying attention to every step and making sure everything is properly done before proceeding to the next step.

I will show you an interesting way to make DIY scrunchies. There are hundreds of sewing tutorials on making them, but this technique I’m about to share with you today is kind of unique and not found in many videos online.

But it’s a fast and easy way to make fabric scrunchies and you’ll get an awesome final product! There are no visible seams, and it looks professionally done. 

What you will need to make DIY scrunchies

• Piece of fabric for the scrunchie ( It’s better to use natural fabric for this scrunchie like 100% cotton) 
• Piece of fabric for embellishment 
• Piece of regular elastic ( 7 – 8 inches)
• Sewing machine 
• Regular sewing notions (use threads of matching colors)

For these DIY scrunchies you will need one piece of fabric 20” long and 4” wide, and one piece of fabric for embellishment 20” long and 2″ wide (the pink scrunchie) or 1.5” wide (the Christmas scrunchie). These are the sizes I used for my scrunchies. 

The strip of fabric for embellishment is a very useful addition to the scrunchie. Why? Because the scrunchie will keep its shape better with it. 

Read all the steps first before proceeding. That is the only way to ensure that you don’t get things done wrong.

Prepare your sewing machine for making a DIY scrunchie

Choose a straight stitch and check all the settings.  

The stitch length should match your fabric thickness, if you are using cotton fabric put the stitch length to 2.5 mm. 

Set the right tension and check it on a scrap piece of the same fabric you are using for your scrunchie.

Check the needle – is it the correct size for the fabric? Use an 80/12 Universal needle. Insert a new needle if you are not sure how worn out the needle is. Check if it’s not bent. 

Thread the machine with good-quality thread that matches the fabric colors. 

✅ Related tutorial: Sewing thread types and uses

Step 1. Cutting fabric for a DIY scrunchie

You can cut these rectangles right on your fabric. Or you can draw it first on paper and then cut it from fabric.

So, the sizes for these DIY scrunchies – one piece of fabric 20” long and 4” wide, and one piece of fabric for embellishment 20” long and 2″ wide (the pink scrunchie) or 1.5” wide (the Christmas scrunchie).

Press the fabric before cutting to get all wrinkles out of the fabric and make it nice and flat. 

And if you have a rotary cutter and a cutting mat you don’t even need to draw the rectangles on the fabric. You can use the grid lines of the mat to cut perfect rectangular shapes. 

Step 2. Sewing short edges

Fold prepared pieces right sides together, pin, and stitch short edges. Seam allowances are ⅜ inch. Don’t sew over pins. After you are done sewing, carefully press the seam open.

Step 3. Attaching embellishment to the main fabric

Fold the narrow piece (from embellishment fabric) lengthwise in half wrong sides together. Use pins to secure the fold or just press with a hot iron. 

Pin the narrow piece to the big piece’s right sides together and stitch. Seam allowances ¼ inch.

Step 4. Sewing the tube

Now comes the trick. 

Fold the prepared piece as you see in the images below. It’s hard to describe it but I will try to explain it. If my explanations are not clear you can watch my video tutorial on YouTube. 

So, we have a sandwich of 4 layers here and we need to sew the outer layers together; the top layer and the bottom layer are now the wrong sides out. We will sew them together, then turn them. 

We have to take the inner two layers away from the stitching line. 

What is now the inner two layers will be unfolded and pulled out and will become part of the tube itself. 

Now pin 2 outer layers together, make sure that you don’t pin the folded inner layers.

Start stitching this tube using ⅜ inch seam allowances. 

Stitch until close to the folded edge, then pull the inner layers. The inner layers will come out, we arrange them manually and continue stitching.

We do this until we are close to the start of the stitch. Leave about 1.5 inches not stitched for turning it right side out. 

Step 5. Preparing the tube

So now we have this shapeless piece. How do we make it a scrunchie? Well, easily! 

Turn the scrunchie right side out through the opening and press. Now you will have a tube with a small opening on one side. 

Step 6. Inserting elastic for the DIY scrunchie

Use a 7- 8 inches strip of elastic.

I use 2 safety pins and put a safety pin on each end of the elastic. I like to secure one end of the elastic with a pin. This lets me keep track of the elastic as I feed it in. Use the safety pin for feeding the elastic strip through the tube. When you are done, both ends will be accessible through an opening on one side of the tube. Try to make sure that the elastic hasn’t twisted inside the tube.

Take the two ends of the elastic and tie a knot or overlap the ends of the elastic and sew them together on the machine or by hand. The elastic should not come apart when you use the scrunchie, so the ends must be properly sewn or tied together.

Step 7. Sewing the opening closed

Hand-sew the hole in the stitches if you want a nice seamless finish. Close the opening using an invisible ladder stitch.

I have a detailed tutorial on how to do an invisible stitch by hand, so check it out. 

Next step? Simple! Once you’ve made one scrunchie, try making another one using different fabrics or different methods. The possibilities are endless when it comes to creating unique scrunchies that match any outfit or mood.

The method presented in this article is one of the methods presented in my article “How To Make A Scrunchie: 5 Different methods“. Perhaps you would like to try another one?

Did you find this tutorial helpful? If so, save this pin (see below) on your sewing board so you can come to this tutorial later when you need this information on how to make DIY scrunchies, and follow me on Pinterest for more tips, tutorials, and inspiration!

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