I first mentioned these little ribbon hair bands over a year ago. I spotted them as little bracelets at Target in the girl’s section and I thought they would be perfect for hair ties. All the sudden these are popping up everywhere as actual hair ties.
I have been hooked on these ever since and thought it was time to do a post on how you can make them and what the cost is per tie. (so you can decide if it is worth it)
Here is a version of these hair ties from Anthropologie. These are 10 ties for $16.00 – so $1.60 each. You can make the same 10 hair ties for about $4.00 yourself though.
I know many of you are absolutely not crafters and I will swear to you this really isn’t a craft. It takes seconds to make these- if you can tie a knot that is about the extent of what is involved here so don’t shy away from making them.
These little hair ties are all over the place now- I typically find about $1.00 or so per hair tie is a reasonable price for the premade ones. You can find them at swanky boutiques for as much as $3.00 each.
If you consider making them yourself the price will drop to roughly $.50 or less per tie (including shipping charges). So stick around and I will give you some places to buy the elastic and what the cost is as well as step by step directions to make your own!
But before all that I thought I would mention why I like these so much. These are called “creaseless hair ties” but they aren’t really creaseless. If you frequently wear pony tails (like I do) they will leave a tiny dent in your hair but nothing like what you normally get from an elastic. They hold up really well- I wear them for pretty high impact workouts and I have crazy thick hair. They pull right out nice and smooth- so they don’t get all snaggled up in your hair. (Especially great if you have little girls!)
Also they are fun and colorful and cheery. Cuter then a plain hair elastic and they won’t break your hair. Are you sold on them yet?
So to start with to make them couldn’t be easier- here is what you need:
- 5/8″ Fold Over Elastic ( see shopping resources below)
- Ruler or measuring tape or a blank sheet of paper
- Scissors
- Lighter (optional)
- Cute Kid (optional)
You want to start by measuring out your fold over elastic. Most ties will be 9 1/2 inches but I find that to be a little too big. I prefer to make them 8 1/2 inches. You might make one larger one first and see what you prefer.
And then the steps are so very simple:
1. Measure your elastic to 8.5″ long and cut. If you don’t have a ruler or measuring tape just use a piece of 8 1/2 x 11″ paper.
2. Tie a tiny knot at the end of each cut piece. I fold the elastic in half and use my finger to tie the knot. I keep the knot loose and pull it off my finger so I can pull the long elastic side (rather then the short cut end side) to tighten the knot. The purpose for this is to get the knot as close to the cut end as possible- otherwise you are just wasting your elastic.
3. Once you tie the knot you might see a tiny bit of frayed fabric at the cut end. There is an easy fix to get a nice sealed end so it looks clean and not homemade ;). Take a lighter or a match and hold it about 1/4″ away from the frayed edge. You don’t want to hold it right up to the fabric and burn the fabric. By holding it super close (without touching) it just barely melts the edges and creates a sealed end. You will see once you do it- the flame burns any little strands from your cut and seals it lightly to prevent future frays. This step takes like 3 seconds per hairband.
Ta da! Time to pull your lovely hair into a pony and have a cocktail (or a latte) because you are all done!
And if you want to make headbands- the process is exactly the same. I just take the elastic and put it around the head to determine a size to cut. Leave about an inch or so at the end for the knot. I made some headbands for my girls and it was about 18 inches. Oh and I got 2 headbands per 1 yard of elastic.
And now for the shopping resources!
You can try checking a sewing store or craft store in your area. I checked Michael’s, Joann’s and Hobby Lobby in my city. The Fold Over Elastic was only available in white, baby blue or light pink in the stores I checked and the price I paid at Joann’s was $2.99/yard.
I got 4 hair ties out of the yard and I used a 40% off coupon so $.44 per hair tie. Note the elastic on the left is what you want. They do have other colors of elastic (pictured on the right) but I thought it was too thick for hair ties so I returned it.
If you want to shop online you can get a lot more patterns and fun colors. Two great places to check:
Elastic by the Yard. 1 yard of colored elastic is $.65. You will pay $2.03 for shipping so about $.67 per hair tie. I would suggest getting a few colors- I tested 5 yards of assorted colors (1 yard per color) and the price was $6.24 shipped. So 5 yards = about 20 hair ties or $.31 each.
Hairbow Supplies Etc… They have a larger selection of patterns, glittered elastic and more. I love the glittered stuff myself- how pretty is this ombre brown? The price for this one is $4.95 for 5 yards + $5.00 for shipping. So 5 yards would make about 20 hair ties or $.49 per tie.
They also have a Neon pink glitter elastic that I love for my girls (and me sometimes too- shhhh!)
The elastic pictured above- glittered and polka dot was purchased from Jane.com. They offer sales every so often on these and what I like about Jane is that you can buy just one yard of fabric so you can get a lot of variety in colors.
Oh and one last little tip. I had that white from Joann’s that you see in Maya’s headband above- the white will for sure look dingy and yucky after a few uses. You can always use die to color it if you don’t want to order online. I happened to be using dye on a DIY tablecloth yesterday so I just used my gloved fingers to spread a little blue on the headband in fun designs and here is how they look now:
Easy!
If you want to give these as gifts, you can put them in these cute little Chevron bags I posted awhile back.
Or you might buy some posterboard or thick scrapbook paper and cut it into a rectangle to slide the hair ties on or a mason jar with ribbon tied around would be cute too!
Happy Crafting- check out my DIY Pinterest board for more fun and easy projects!
The Ribbon Retreat online has some of the best prices for FOE and a ton of colors as well. I thought they were excellent.
Jonn Fabric has so really cute color and patterns online for 1In Foldover Elastic1Yd for 2.99!
We bought 5/8″ FOE 1 yard and fabric paints set at joanns over the weekend, and used coupons. we thought we had bought dye, but oh well. my daughter cut into 4 9-inch pieces. then she painted, dried, and ironed to seal color. i tied the knot in each and it was tough because fabric paint made it stiff. after pulling on it, it was tight. next time, we plan to decorate with Sharpie markers. My daughter liked making her own color combinations.
Oh I wouldn’t paint them. 🙁 You could do Sharpie with alcohol to make it blur or RIT dye would be great.
Do they hold ponytails well for all day playing? Or sports?
Hobby Lobby now has lots of colours and designs for the Fold Over Elastic. They have it in the Decorative Trim area of their Ribbon (in the Fabric and Sewing area). You can buy it by the spool.
I just check the major craft stores local to myself and hancock fabrics has the best selection and prices of the foe ribbon.
These wash very nicely, too! I accidentally had a few stuck in the wash and they came out as bright as when they were new.
Oh glad to hear that!