DIY Dance Streamers

 

Are you having an 80's/ early 90's flashback with these?  They remind me of all the hair scrunchies I used to make as a kid.  I think they were one of my first 'solo' sewing projects.   These aren't for the hair though.  They are dance ribbons.  In other words, you wear them around your wrists and the ribbons fly around as you dance. 

 

My older daughter has been working hard for months making her younger sister a hat with her knitting loom.   I wanted to come up with something that her little sister could make for her, that was reasonable for us to make together.  These dance streamers fit the bill.  Super easy.  We whipped these guys up in less than 30 minutes one evening (hence the pour quality pictures).  My two year old picked out all of the ribbons and fabric.  She was super excited to help use my sewing machine (she loves pushing the buttons--I don't have a foot pedal) and seemed genuinely pleased to be able to make a gift that she thought was pretty cool. 

 

Ready to make your own?  Ok, let's get started.

 

 

Here's what you'll need to make one dance streamer: 

 

A small scrap of fabric

 

A small piece of elastic (just measure around child's wrist)

 

and some ribbons

 



I used 6 ribbon pieces for each.
 

Fold the fabric piece so that the good sides are together.  I put the streamers in the inside of the two pieces such that they will get sewn into the seam.  Sew straight down.

Now turn it inside out:

Here's what you should have.  Now attach your piece of elastic to a safety pin and pull it through the "tunnel"  you've just made. 

Tie a knot.

Now you'll need to finish the edges.  Normally I would have done this with a blind stitch, but since my 2 year old was helping me, I just folded over one edge and tucked the other raw end inside of it.  Then I stitched a straight line through both sides of the fabric (and elastic).

 

Here's a close-up of the seam:

Finished!  Don't feel like sewing?  You could easily just tie the ribbons to a hair rubber band.