scrunchies and buns

All Brynne ever blogs about is sewing and hair. I know, I know. But I don't want to spoil the new Harry Potter film for those who haven't seen it, and no one wants more Cat Stevens birthday announcements (it was yesterday). So!

Yesterday I rearranged my room entirely and made my desk into a sewing table.

(Cleverly hidden under the white curtain is my mass of fabrics and yarns, which take up surprisingly little space - I use them, you see, and I limit my acquisition.)

 I really like it, and the cat does does too...

But it has driven me to sew some more. My hair is getting longer and longer - it's mid-back - and I've been doing a lot of buns, using stretched-out scrunchies probably purchased by my mother in 1995. They're a little bit pathetic, many of them, and I decided it was time to replenish our stock.

I still haven't got it quite right; my elastic isn't stretchy enough for my very, very, very, very, very thick hair. So they're a little tight for buns, but they are great for ponytails and the ends of braids. Even though scrunchies haven't been "in" since the '90s, they're a lot better for my hair than those little elastics - maybe it's just the curliness, but they always always get caught in my hair.

But while I was poking around on the internet for how-tos regarding scrunchie-making (I didn't end up using any one; I took my favorite aspects and experimented with a bunch of different ways), I came across this blog tutorial on sewing bun-makers:

http://www.ikatbag.com/2009/06/operation-summer-hair-rescue-part-2-how.html

Basically they are a piece of fabric with flexible wire around the perimeter and a slit in the middle. I didn't use her directions exactly, either, because (see very, very, very thick hair) the hole in the middle of the bun-maker was about half the size I needed it to be. I made three for me and two for my mother.

There's this nice site by a cheesy company that makes them that has tutorial videos. So armed with this knowledge I managed to put my hair in a nice double bun using two of the things. And, shockingly, it's about as easy as the instructionals make it seem - even if I don't have shiny, straight hair like the lady in the video, my hair is exactly the right length for this.

It looks a lot fancier than it is. So easy. Before I made them I hunted around the internet and found a bunch of blog posts complaining about how the bun-makers don't work, but I think it's a lot easier if you see a demonstration. I just did it for Mum. Because I have so much curl, I think I have too much hair to easily do a single bun, but with hers the hair-toy was actually a little too big. But that's good - it means it'll still work as it gets longer.

Yay for that experiment.