If you’re feeling like us, lockdown 2.0 has you a little bit lost again. We feel the best thing you can do for your mental health is get creative.
We’ve put together a couple of short simple projects which you can work through. They won’t take you long but a little pieces you can whip up in between other makes to give you that boost that we all need right now! On top of this, they’re all great scrap busters, and perfect for using up your leftover fabric pieces.
One will be released every week, so get crafty with us and show us what you make!
Lockdown Makes 1: Scrunchies
One of the easiest things to make but you can wear it straight away! All you need for a scrunchie is a rectangle of fabric and some elastic. If you don’t have any elastic, you can use a bobble instead.
- Cut the elastic - you’re looking for a length of 0.5-0.75cm elastic that’s around the same size as a bobble with a little extra for seam allowance. With the elastic, around 12-15cm works well but go longer if you’d like! We always recommend going too long rather than too small - it’ll be easier to work with, plus there’s nothing worse than a hair tie being too tight!
- Cut the fabric - the fabric needs to be a rectangle approximately double the length of the elastic and 10cm+ wide. The width needs to be double the width you want the final scrunchie plus seam allowance.
- Create two rings - Stitch the fabric together down the short edge to create a ring. Do the same with the elastic.
- Stitch the scrunchie - The tricky bit is putting the scrunchie together. Lay the fabric ring with the outer on the inside of the ring and pop the elastic on the outside of it. Fold the ring together trapping the elastic inside. Turn the seam allowance under on one section of the scrunchie (you won’t be able to do this all of the ay round at this point) so it looks how it would when it’s finished. Grab the seam allowance from the inside and pull it out. Stitch this together along the long edges of the rectangle (right side to right side) pulling the fabric out as you go. It’ll sit inside out and automatically gather around the elastic, so take care to pull through it as you go. When you’re a couple of centimetres from the end stop.
- Turn through - Turn the scrunchie the right way round.
- Hand Sew to Finish - You should have a small gap in the edge of the scrunchie where you turned it through. Use a needle and thread to hand stitch this closed. By hand stitching in the seam, you’ll be able to keep your stitch hidden.