How to Make Sustainable Scrunchies from Old Tights and Socks | Cherry and Crochet Designs

How to make sustainable scrunchies from old tights and socks

With growing awareness around the environment, more people than ever are trying to produce less waste,  save money and conserve worldwide resources. These simple and quick scrunchies are a great way to recycle old tatty and holey tights and socks into lots of hair ties, which are usually quite expensive if sustainably made and ethically produced. By making them yourself from unusable tights and socks, you recycle them yourself, ensuring they don't go to landfill and also make a big set of hair bands in less than twenty minutes.

I am still using up hair bobbles from before wanting to be sustainable, but they are showing their age and I think it won't be long before all my hair bands are from tights and socks. They aren't as stretchy, but are more durable, eco friendly and free. They are also easily washable, which is great if you have very oily hair.

How to convert old tights to hair ties

Step 1) Wash and dry your old tights

This may seem obvious, but it is far easier to wash the tights or socks prior to cutting them into smaller pieces. Wash them thoroughly and dry them.

Step 2) Preparing them

Lay out your tights and use a pen, piece of chalk, small piece of soap or pencil to mark out sections approximately 10cm (~4 inches) apart on the leg of the tights. Make a mark at the end of the leg of the tights.

Step 3) Cutting

Cut the end of the toe off, then cut at each mark you have made, until you reach the end of the leg of the tights. Pick up each band and stretch it, then put it down. It should curl naturally into a reasonably thick hairband.

Step 4) (Optional) Securing the end

If it bothers you that the end could unravel, you can sew the loose part to the body of the hair tie to secure it and stop it unravelling. I don't do this simply because I am a little lazy and I find that the hair tie doesn't uncurl for me.

Making scrunchies from socks

Step 1) Cut the toe off the sock

Cut the very end of the toe off the sock.

Step 2) Cut the elasticated ankle part off

Cut from the top of the ankle of the sock, to around 4cm below it. This is the most stretchy part of the sock and therefore the most stretchy hair band.

Step 3) Cut the remainder of the sock in half

This is usually not particularly stretchy, so may be better if you use the whole sock rolled up if you want it to be very stretchy. However, cutting it in half makes it a decent hair tie.

Step 4) Finishing off

Pick up each band and stretch it, then put it down. It should curl naturally into a reasonably thick hairband. If it bothers you that the end could unravel, you can sew the loose part to the main bit of the scrunchie to secure it and stop it unravelling. I don't do this.

If you are wondering what to do with the excess fabric, I have a post here on making toy stuffing from fabric scraps.

Thank you for visiting my blog, let me know if you have tried anything like this and how it turned out.