How a Scrunchie Is Actually Made: Inside Our Bulandshahr Workshop

A scrunchie looks like a simple object. A tube of fabric, some elastic, one seam. The assumption is that they come off a machine by the thousand.

Ours do not, and the difference shows up in ways that are worth explaining.

It starts with the fabric

We buy fabric in small quantities, and we buy what is good rather than what is consistently available.

That means end-of-roll lengths, small-run prints, and remnants from larger production. It is why our Limited Edition range exists at all — some fabrics we can only get once, and when they are gone we cannot reorder them.

It also means we test how a fabric behaves before committing to it. The question is not whether it photographs well. It is how it sits in hair over a full day: does it grip or slide, does it hold a gather or collapse, does it survive a wash.

Cutting

Each size needs a different length and width of fabric, and the ratio is not obvious. An XXL is not simply a longer Classic — the width has to increase with the length, or the gather comes out thin and stringy instead of full.

Fabric is cut in small stacks by hand. Georgette and silk shift as you cut them, so they need to be handled more slowly than a stable cotton.

Sewing

Each piece is folded, run through the machine along its length, and then turned right side out through its own opening. Turning a long narrow tube of fabric is the fiddly part and there is no way to speed it up.

The elastic is then threaded through the full length of the tube. We use a fully enclosed fabric channel rather than attaching elastic at the ends, which means no exposed band, no metal join and no plastic crimp anywhere that hair can catch.

The elastic is joined, the gather is distributed evenly along the fabric by hand, and the opening is closed by hand with a slip stitch. That last step is the one that gets skipped in mass production, where the closing seam is usually visible.

Checking

Every piece is checked before it is boxed. We are looking for even gathering, a secure closing seam, correct elastic tension, and no loose threads.

Pieces that fail do not get sold. On a small batch that is a real cost, which is a reasonable argument for why handmade things cost what they do.

Why small batches

We make in small batches because of how we buy fabric, and because one person completes each piece from cutting to closing rather than passing it down a line.

The trade-off is honest: we cannot restock quickly, and popular fabrics sell out. The benefit is that nothing leaves without having been looked at properly by the person who made it.

Where

Everything is made in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh. Not assembled here from parts made elsewhere — cut, sewn, threaded, finished and checked here.

You can read more about how we started on our about page, and more about the fabrics themselves on our materials page.

Our Rania Silk Scrunchie is a good example of the process in a finished piece.