Friday, August 27, 2010

Crafty Corner! -- Custom Ponytail elastics

So after looking around for the right color ribbon festooned ponytail elastic for Lily to wear for her soccer games and not finding anything I liked I decided to make her some myself.  I mean how hard could they be??  Looked to me like they were just ribbons knotted onto rubber bands to me. So I went searching on the internet and came across this fantastic post from Chica and Jo.

My next step was to go shopping for ribbon to match Lily's soccer kit.


Unfortunately it seems that "hunter green" really isn't in vogue right now, so finding the organza ribbon the tutorial calls for wasn't going to happen.  Soooo I remembered back to the blog and that they also made them out of fleece! So that was my answer! I bought  the elastics and a strip of green fleece and set about cutting it up!





If you don't already have a rotary cutter, 18" clear craft ruler, and a self healing cutting mat I highly recommend you get these awesome tools! Nothing cuts straighter. And nothing cuts fleece more quickly or more easily. 

I decided to make the strips of random thickness in order to give the whole thing some interest. Each strip is 12" long.  I've toyed with the idea of random lengths too which I may do on the next one.



Next I knotted the strips onto the elastic by wrapping the strip around the elastic and pulling the tails through the hoop and pull tight.

 


 

Slide each strip of fleece up next to the one before and continue until you have 2/3 of the elastic filled. I decided it was easier to get into Lily's hair if I left some of the elastic bare. Took me about 22 strips to get the one I was making this full.





And here's the finished ponytail holder in action!

 

3 comments:

  1. Very nice! I used to make and sell all sorts of hair things long before marriage and kids. You make me want to do it again. Geez, with all my girls, I don't know why I haven't already. :/

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  2. I like it! I love how long the strips are and how they meld with her own hair.

    Also, here's my little piece of advice: If you want a self healing mat but find the cost prohibitive go to home improvement store and pick up those panels for florescent lights. The backs of them are rubbery and can be used for rotary mats and they're HUGE! Best part? They're under $10.

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  3. LOL Hannah maybe because you have 5 kiddos and are busier than the busiest bee??

    @Krista what a great tip! Oh and thanks, I decided to make it long enough to look more or less like a hair fall than just a pony holder. She loves it!

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