DIY Scrunchie with Cricut: How to Sew a Scrunchie!!

Learn how to make a DIY scrunchie and decorate with a Cricut cutting machine. A step by step written and video tutorial on how to cut and sew a scrunchie!

This is a sponsored post by Cricut, but all opinions and projects are my own.

Being a child of the 80s and 90s I can’t tell you how many scrunchies I had lying around everywhere. Even though I was surprised to see hair scrunchies become popular again, I was super excited because I actually still had some…lol!

And since my daughter was also wanting and stealing mine, I decided we needed to make some DIY scrunchies and decorate them to suit our personalities.

So this tutorial is going to be about how to make hair scrunchies by sewing them (but I also have tips on no-sew scrunchies and the best fabric glue I found to make them with!).

They are super easy and quick to make and homemade scrunchies make perfect gifts, party favors, stocking stuffers, and so much more! They would also pair perfectly with a DIY personalized zipper bag.

I am going to be using my Cricut Maker to cut the material so it’s nice and straight and then cut out some iron-on vinyl to apply to the fabric before I sew the scrunchies together.

I am not a great seamstress, so if I can sew scrunchies together, so can you! Just basic straight stitches is all you need.

I do have a full YouTube tutorial link on how to make homemade scrunchies at the bottom of the post and a short overview of how I made a DIY scrunchie below.

Here is what we’ll go over in this step by step DIY scrunchie tutorial:

Materials Needed for DIY Scrunchie

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• fabric – DIY hair scrunchies can be made with almost any material. I am going to be using cotton which is probably the easiest to work with.
• 1/4″ elastic – 7-8 inches for each scrunchie
• coordinating thread and sewing machine (a sewing machine will give you the best results)
• Cricut Maker with fabric grip mat 12×24 (pink)
• Cricut Mini EasyPress 2 and mat
• Cricut iron-on vinyl
• Cricut sewing kit

Scrunchie Pattern to Use

When making a scrunchie, there are a few different DIY scrunchie measurements you can use depending on your hair type (thick or thin hair). So you might have to play around with the sizes a bit until you get one that works perfectly for your hair.

The basic scrunchie pattern size is usually 3.5-4 inches wide by 22 inches long and is a perfect rectangle. This allows for the seam allowance and for the fabric to scrunch up. You can go a little longer to 24 or 25 inches if you want a larger one.

In Cricut Design Space, I inserted a square from the shape button on the left side and unlocked it so I could change the size to 3.75 by 22. This will be my scrunchie pattern, so no need to find a scrunchie SVG file.

Then I found a few images in Cricut Access that I wanted to personalize my scrunchies with. I will be cutting these out of iron-on vinyl so I made sure to turn the Mirror setting on in the Prepare Screen.

Also, if you are new to CDS, make sure to check out my series of Cricut Design Space 101 tutorials to get started.

The first thing I will be cutting out is my fabric so I used the drop down menu to search Fabric, then clicked on Cotton.

Making a Scrunchie with a Cricut Maker

I am using my Cricut Maker to cut out the fabric. If you don’t have a Maker, you can cut out rectangles of 3.75 inches wide by 22 inches long with scissors or a rotary cutter and then continue with cutting out iron-on vinyl with a Cricut Explore Air 2 or Cricut Joy.

I’m cutting several different kinds of fabric for my DIY scrunchies so the pictures might have different fabrics! First, insert the rotary blade in clamp A.

Then I placed a long piece of fabric on a pink fabric grip mat and used my brayer to smooth it down.

Follow all of the Cricut Design Space prompts and let the Cricut Maker cut the fabric scrunchie pattern out.

Remove the excess fabric and you are left with a perfect rectangle! I don’t know about you, but I can never get a straight cut with scissors…

Next up, I cut the Cricut foil iron on vinyl by placing the shiny side down on a mat.

Once the images are cut, weed off the extra vinyl. I then cut all of the images apart so I could place them where I wanted on the scrunchie fabric.

Applying Iron-On Vinyl to Homemade Scrunchies

Now the fun part! Customizing the hair scrunchies to make them truly unique.

I used my EasyPress Mini for this project but you could easily use any of the EasyPress 2 machines. Check the Cricut heat guide for the correct temperature and settings to ensure the best application.

I preheated my Mini to medium.

Place the long rectangle with the right side up on an EasyPress mat or towel and preheated the fabric by ironing over it for a 5 seconds with my EasyPress Mini.

Then I set the iron-on vinyl Cricut logos where I wanted them down the long rectangle.

I pressed each Cricut C for about 15-20 seconds with constant movement.

Then I flipped the fabric over and pressed the backside for about 15 seconds. I let the iron-on vinyl cool for a minute or so and then peeled off the plastic backing. I love the sparkly foil iron-on!

How to Sew a Scrunchie

Now it’s time for the sewing machine to come out and to learn how to sew a scrunchie! I did make a few no-sew scrunchies so make sure to check out those instructions below, but a sewing machine does make the best most durable DIY scrunchies.

The first thing you’ll need to do when sewing a scrunchie is fold over one of the ends of the rectangle about 1/2″ so the wrong sides are together. It’s easiest to see on the yellow fabric I was using since the pink polyester fabric looked the same on each side.

Sew a straight stitch down the middle of the edge. I do have a full YouTube video of all these steps so make sure to check it out with the link below if you need to watch it.

Then fold the long rectangle in half so the right sides are together. You won’t be able to see the iron-on vinyl anymore because it will be on the folded side. Pin together if needed.

Now sew all the way along the length of the rectangle with a straight stitch and about 1/4″ seam allowance so the rectangle is now a tube. Make sure to backstitch to reinforce the top and bottom of the tube.

Your scrunchie rectangle should now look like this.

Now is probably the most tedious part and can be a bit frustrating! I find music helpful, lol!

We need to turn the tube right side out so you’ll need to push some of the fabric up with your finger and then keep pulling it out. Make sure to watch the video on this part because it’s hard to explain if you are unfamiliar.

Once the tube is right side out out it will look like this.

Attach a safety pin to the end of a 7.5″-8″ piece of 1/4″ elastic. Again you might have to make a few to find the perfect size for your hair.

Insert the safety pin end into the tube and scrunch the fabric down as you push the safety pin further.

Just push a little in and then pin the other end of the elastic to the end you just went through so the elastic doesn’t pull all the way through.

Then keep pushing the safety pin through so that it comes out the other side. Now you have two options to attach the two elastic ends together.

You can lay them on top of each other and stitch them together. I recommend going back and forth a few times and a zig zag stitch.

Or you can tie the two ends together so there is a knot.

Now you’ll have the ring of the scrunchie. Stick the unfinished end inside the end that was folded over in the first step. Make sure the elastic is not twisted and the seams line up with each other.

Now sew a straight stitch where the two overlap, even trying to stitch over the stich already there so you don’t have two lines.

If your thread matches well you won’t see the line very well like in the picture above. But for the periwinkle scrunchies I didn’t have the exact color of thread so you can see where the line is better.

That’s it! Now you have personalized DIY scrunchies that you can make for really anyone.

The yellow and purple paw prints scrunchies are perfect for any sports team that wants matching scrunchies like cheerleaders, soccer players, or just for school spirit!

And the best friends scrunchies, so sweet for young girls that are best friends and like to wear matching outfits!

Super easy to customize a scrunchie! I think I might make the Cricut C a little smaller on my next one.

How to Make a Scrunchie Video Tutorial

Click the play button to watch a quick overview of how to sew a scrunchie. If you want a longer version with talking scrunchie step by step tutorial, check out my YouTube video here.

DIY Scrunchie No Sew Tips

So I know not everyone has sewing machines or knows how to sew, so I wanted to try out a few different fabric glues I had to see if they worked and which one held a scrunchie better.

I did the same exact steps as above (except these DIY scrunchies are 3 inches wide and were really hard to pull through!) but instead of sewing the sides together I glued them together. I tried Fabric Fusion, Fabric Fuse, and Unique Stitch.

I also actually tried hot glue and it pulled apart pretty easily so I didn’t continue with it.

This picture was after I had glued the hem on the side and then glued the right sides together to form the tube. The glues are all still wet. I let them dry overnight.

Then I pulled them right side out but with my large fingers and these small tubes it took a long time!

I put the elastic through and glued them together by adding a little glue on both sides of the opening. Again I let them completely dry.

And the results of the DIY no-sew scrunchie? For me, the Unique Stitch did the best!

The Fabric Fuse didn’t dry clear so I had a dark line and the Fabric Fusion dried kind of hard. The Unique Stitch also dried a little hard where the ring was closed but not as much.

I hope you learned some great tips on how to sew a scrunchie and also how to make a no-sew scrunchie. They get addicting to make once you start!

If you’d like to save this tutorial on how to make a scrunchie step by step tutorial for later or share you can PIN It now! If you are on a desktop hover over the top left of the image below and if you are on a phone simply tap on the image and a PIN It button will pop up to click on!

You can also watch the web story on DIY scrunchies here.

Here are some printable instructions on how to sew a scrunchie.

Love the 80s as much as I do? See how much you know with this 80s trivia question printable!

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!