Button Your Braids- hair tie tutorial

I like buttons! This project takes 2 large buttons and 2 smaller buttons to make a pair of hair ties. The finished ties are wrapped around the hair a few times, then secure it closed by pulling the elastic over the button. This project is super quick.

You will need:
2 big buttons
2 smaller buttons- contrasting colors are great
1/16 inch elastic cord
Strong sewing thread
Glue- Super glue or PVA glue will work. It's used to secure the knot.
Scissors

Cut 2 5 inch pieces of elastic cord and thread each button with elastic, the two ends should come out on top of the button. Tie a square knot in the elastic.

How to tie a square knot

Secure the knot with a dab of glue and trim close.

Thread your needle, and go down through the top of the button and back up through the other hole, leaving a tail, tie the working end of the thread and the tail end of the thread in a tight knot. go through the button a second time, and when you come back up, put on the small button. Sew securely to the bottom button. When it's securely sewn on, bring the needle and thread between the two buttons and tie the end off to the tail, pulling tight so the knot is between the button. Tie a couple more knots to keep it secure, and cut off the ends of the thread as close as possible between the two buttons.

Wrap the elastic around your braid a few times, then pull the loop over the button to close!

My daughter loves these, and I enjoy the fun of them quite a bit as well. If you're using stash buttons, you can make a lot of these for a lot less than buying decorated hair ties. 

My new chou loom

If you look up the word シュシュ in Google, you'll find out that it means "chou" and that a chou is a scrunchie.
I asked Abigail of Abigail's Craft How To how to pronounce it, she said "shu-shu". There is a loom that's available in Japan for making them. It's a very simple pegged knitting loom. (Japanese site) This weekend, my husband and daughter teamed up to make me one.

The pegs are a little long and there are a couple other modifications that we've talked about making. But the chou on the loom is one that I knitted out of thrifted vintage acrylic yarn. I don't have any fuzzy or furry yarn handy or I've have tried it out of that. The wide open knit has a lot of stretch, and there is elastic in it as well. It's super easy to make scrunchies on the loom. They will probably make a few to sell in my Etsy shop. First there are a couple things that I want to work out.

I'm not a fan of acrylic yarn usually, this is from The Amazing Turnip Girl's stash.

This weekend I also made a pair of ear cuffs, that I'll be posting instructions for on Beadwork at BellaOnline later today. After trying a few ways to photograph them, I finally just put them on the loom.

I also made myself a very large hair bobble using tabletop skulls from Halloween. I'll post instructions for hair bobbles later this week!