No More Tears September 16, 2006
Both of my daughters take dance and they’re required to wear their hair in a bun for class. We always race right from school to the studio, and for class they hate the traditional ponyholder-hairpins-hairnet-hairspray-Mommy-stop-you’re-hurting-me method of making a bun.
My mother found these wire and fabric bun wraps somewhere. They are so easy make and perfect for dance class. All you need is:
A scrap of fabric at least 17 inches by 3 inches
A piece of picture hanging wire 31 inches long
Wire cutters
Make the pattern: Draw a rectangle 15 inches x 2 inches. Find something round in the house with a 2 inch diameter – vitamin bottle, roll of tape, etc – and use it to round off the ends of the rectangle. Add a ½ inch seam allowance all around. In the center mark a 3 inch slit.
Making the bun wrap: Cut out two pieces of fabric, mark the slit on one piece, and sew the pieces together. Trim the seam allowance to ¼ inch, cut open the slit and turn the tube inside out. Take your picture wire and bend it into the same shape as the rounded rectangle – you have an extra inch for twisting the ends of the wire together. Cut off any sharp ends with wire cutters so they don’t poke through the fabric.
Insert the wire into the slit, and zigzag the slit all around as if it’s a giant buttonhole.
Viola – it’s done! It will probably take you longer to get the hang of making a bun than it will to make the bun wrap. If you know how to use old-fashioned cloth curlers the instructions will make perfect sense.
Wrapping a bun: Pull the hair together into a pony and through the slit. Move the bun wrap about ½ down the hair. Start wrapping the hair, tucking in the ends, from the bottom up until you get to the nape of the neck:
Tighten the rolled hair against the nape of the neck and bend the ends down into a horseshoe shape and then cross the ends:
Bring the ends up to the top of the bun and twist the ends over each other to hold the bun in place:
This bun wrap is great for class and is not strong enough for a performance - but at least making a bun on the fly is now fast, simple, and painless!
Keep on sewin’
Phyllis
What a great idea! I bet your girls love them!
Such pretty hair! This should come in handy for many people.
I just love this idea. Pity I chopped all my hair off. And my sons probably wouldn’t like it, even if their hair was long enough. I wonder if the dog…. Never mind!
I LOVE this! DD could have used that for softball practice back in the day. However, I’m thinking this would be very helpful for me, who hasn’t given up the longish hair yet despite being MsMenopausalHotFlash…Hee.
Thanks for the wonderful instructions!
I’ve seen these at the State Fair at one of the vendor booths. I had no idea they were so easy to do. My hair is longish but with a lot of layering so it probably wouldn’t work for me. But I’ll hang on to your instructions–just in case.
How about posting the spa head wrap instructions?
Great Phyllis! My DD’s are now old enought to do their own buns, thank goodness. But this may be useful for the Christmas stocking!
Anonymous - if you already bought the spa wrap pattern and didn’t get the instructions, email the Divas and I’ll send it to you. I’m 99.9% positive I haven’t missed anyone, but you never know I suppose. The spa wrap instructions are too long to post to the Sewing Divas blog. The pattern & instructions for the spa wrap are not free because it took much longer to make up that pattern and instructions than it did for me to do the same thing with this bun wrap. When I do these small projects I factor in my time & effort.
Hmmm, maybe DD would like some of these in colors to match her scrubs; she deliberately keeps her hair long enough that it can be pulled back and clipped up off her neck while she’s working. Thanks, Phyllis!
I used to have something like this when my hair was long — it was two of those old “slap bracelets” covered in fabric and connected at one end. You slid your hair between the bracelets, rolled it up, and then let them “snap” closed, and boom! Instant bun. They held *very* tightly, especially if you used velour to cover the bracelets. Fun!
I have been trying to figure these out for a long time. The ones I have seen have the wire encased inside, so instead of one seam there is two. How do you keep the wire from getting all “out of place”?
That’s pretty much the concept of the hairigami (the “snap bracelet” thing Erin mentioned:
http://www.hairagami.com/
I used it and it holds during dance class. You can pick them up at Wal-Mart/Target/etc. and/or sometimes the local brand pharmacy carries them.
My mom told me that my great-grandmother was doing what you posted loooooooong before the hairagami came out.
I found a website that shows how to “properly” roll your hair using this one, and then maybe they would hold during a recital or a game!
I am so making these! Just for the fact that if you put them in semi-wet hair, roll them and leave them over night, my daughters hair is super curly, and I don’t have to use the curling iron to get her ready for school or church! HUGE time saver!!
http://www.lymans.com/ez-buns/index2.htm
Allow your daughter to view my hair inventions posted on my website http://www.inventorsdataservicesllc.com
They are called “The Ponytail Hairnet / Sportnet”.
The webpage for the Sportnet is still under construction…
I have been looking for these cloth hair twist bun makers for years. I don’t sew, does anybody sell them?