A dollar. That is what one bandana costs at the dollar store, and it is already hemmed on all four sides, which quietly does half the work of any sewing project you point it at. My own sewing sits somewhere between beginner and intermediate, learned from my mother and a lot of stubbornness, and these DIY ideas with bandanas are exactly the range I can handle: no sew wreaths and banners that need nothing but scissors and a glue gun, then straight seams for pillows, skirts, bags and a nine patch quilt that comes together in about an hour. Some are for the porch, some are for the kids, a few are for the picnic table. All of them turn a square of printed cotton into something people assume you bought at a summer market for forty dollars!
DIY Ideas With Bandanas
1. How to Make Bandana Pillows
Bandana pillows are one of my favorite craft projects ever, and if you saw how many I have made you would agree. They are cheap, because dollar store bandanas mean a whole pillow for a few dollars, and they are not something you will find in a store or in anybody else’s house. There is a no sew option if the machine is buried under laundry, and a full video walkthrough at the bottom of the post. They suit farmhouse, boho, a ranch house, a beach house or any room that has gone a bit beige.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
2. DIY Drawstring Bandana Backpack
Two bandanas trimmed to sixteen inch squares, lined with half a yard of quilting cotton, and closed with four yards of paracord running through two three eighths inch grommets at the bottom corners. The grommets are the only unfamiliar part and a basic setting tool handles them in a minute. If your bandana has a center medallion, fold and measure eight inches from the fold on each side so the motif stays centered. Good for a pool day, a festival or a kid who keeps losing bags.
Get the full tutorial at The Kim Six Fix.
3. Easy DIY Bandana Party Banner
Fifty feet of banner in about an hour, which is the number worth knowing here. Bandanas get cut into triangles using a cardstock template, roughly seven and a quarter inches across the top with ten inch sides, then hot glued around a length of jute rope rather than sewn. Stacking three bandanas and cutting them together with a rotary cutter is what makes it fast. The finished banner comes down, goes in a box and reappears at the next birthday or backyard cookout.
Get the full tutorial at Thirty Handmade Days (project originally shared by LandeeLu).
4. DIY Bandana Bento Bags
Bento bags come out of furoshiki, the Japanese art of wrapping in cloth, and this version uses two standard twenty two inch bandanas per bag. Folding on the diagonal and seaming the sides produces a pouch that closes by crossing its own long corners over the top, so there is no zipper, no button and nothing to break. It swallows a wrapped sandwich, a food container or a whole lunch, and it goes in the wash with the towels afterward.
Get the full tutorial at Mary Makes Good.
5. DIY Bandana Wreath
A rag wreath, and the arithmetic is friendly: six bandanas in three colors, cut into strips about an inch by seven inches, single knotted onto the two inner wires of a dollar store wire frame. No pattern, no double knots, no glue. Tie a few more of one color than the other and the second reads as random accents rather than stripes. When the ring is full you flip it over, tuck the stray ends forward and fluff it until it looks like a fabric peony.
Get the full tutorial at Food and DIY.
6. Patriotic Table Decor
Barely a craft and completely effective. Red and navy bandanas get tucked into mason jars with the silverware, so each jar holds a napkin and a fork at once and the table sets itself. Group the jars on a galvanized tray with a stack of plates and the whole spread costs less than one package of themed paper goods. Everything here is washable and reusable, which is more than the flag plates can say, and it stores flat until Memorial Day.
Get the full tutorial at Live Laugh Rowe.
7. Bandana Pants
Two bandanas, folded in half with the folds to the outside, cut against a pair of pajama pants used as a pattern, seamed up the insides and joined at the crotch with a casing at the top for elastic. The maker is refreshingly honest about the math: because bandanas are the size they are, these just barely fit her five year old, so aim a little smaller and let the child grow into them. The prints hide every wobbly seam.
Get the full tutorial at Over The Apple Tree.
8. Cool Bandana Wreath
The DIY JOY version of the bandana wreath is built on a smaller ten inch form on purpose, so a patriotic one comes together in about an hour rather than an afternoon. There is a tutorial video with the step by step, and it shows exactly how tight to pull each knot, which is the one thing writing cannot really teach. Red, white and blue is the classic, but a pink version in two or three shades makes a thoughtful Breast Cancer Awareness gift, and a few burlap strips worked in among the fabric push the whole thing rustic.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
9. Easy Bandana Headband
Ten minutes start to finish, including the wait for the glue gun to heat up. The bandana folds into a triangle, rolls up from the point, and the two ends knot together into a loop. Then a skinny metal headband threads through the underside of that knot, the excess fabric is cut away, and each end is hot glued around the headband with a scrap of grosgrain ribbon wrapped over the join. That hidden headband is why this one actually stays on.
Get the full tutorial at My 3 Monsters.
10. Bandana Wrapped Jar Candle Holder
The Country Chic Cottage wraps a glass jar in a decorative metal sleeve and glues it in place for a candle holder that takes minutes, and the method transfers straight to fabric. Swap the metal cutout for a folded strip of bandana and you get the same shape with a softer glow through the cotton. It is a no sew project, roughly twenty minutes, and a row of them down a mantel or a picnic table costs almost nothing. Use a battery tealight if the fabric makes you nervous.
Get the full tutorial at The Country Chic Cottage.
11. No Sew Bandana Table Runner
Two bandanas, a length of three quarter to one inch ribbon and a hot glue gun. The ribbon is not decoration here, it is the binder: a thin line of glue along one bandana edge, the ribbon centered on it, then the second bandana glued to the ribbon’s free half. Trim the overhang, fold and press with an iron, and it is done. Patriotic prints make a Fourth of July table and any two colors you like make a runner that works all year.
Get the full tutorial at That's What {Che} Said.
12. Bandanna Summer Skirt
Three bandanas stacked, folded into quarters and cut in a curve three inches from the point, which opens out into a near perfect circle skirt with twelve points around the hem. An inch and a half of soft elastic makes the waist, and the maker is emphatic about buying the soft kind rather than the stiff white elastic in every big box sewing aisle, because children notice and complain. Stagger the three layers so all twelve points show. About ten minutes of actual sewing.
Get the full tutorial at U Create.
13. DIY Bandana Camera Strap
A camera strap is three straight seams and two swivel clasps, which is the whole reason this one is worth borrowing. The original sews two strips roughly thirty five by two and a half inches into a tube, presses it flat, then attaches sturdier end pieces carrying the hardware that clips to the camera. Cut those strips from a bandana instead and you get a strap that is genuinely one of a kind, for about the price of a coffee. The denim end pieces are what keep it strong.
Get the full tutorial at A Beautiful Mess.
14. Bandana Rosette
A fabric rose built from a strip of bandana about two inches wide, and the method is a knot rather than a coil. Tie a loose knot near one end, tuck the raw ends down into it, then bring the long tail up and over and keep twisting and wrapping it around that knot until the petals build outward. It takes about five minutes. Because the printed border of a bandana runs along the edges, the spiral ends up striped in a way plain fabric cannot manage. Pin a row across a plain tank, glue one to a headband, or cluster three on a wrapped gift.
Get the full tutorial at At The Picket Fence.
15. Super Versatile Bandana Quilt
Nine bandanas, one nine patch layout, one hour. Three rows of three, each row pieced and pressed, then the rows joined to each other and the top is finished. The maker serged hers together rather than sewing it, which is faster still, though a standard quarter inch seam on a regular machine works exactly as well. Hers went off to a longarm quilter and came back bound in navy and white Swiss dot. Cheap, fast and a genuinely good first quilt.
Get the full tutorial at Simple Simon and Company.
16. Vintage Bandana Bowl Covers
Center the upturned bowl on a bandana, measure out an inch and a half to two inches past its rim, mark with a fabric pencil, cut the circle and sew elastic around the edge. Two inches is right for old stoneware with a heavy lip, an inch and a half for most modern bowls. The result replaces foil and plastic wrap on picnic bowls and refrigerator leftovers, washes with the dish towels and lasts for years. Vintage bandanas make the softest, prettiest ones.
Get the full tutorial at Sadie Seasongoods.
17. Bandana Sunglass Case
Four rectangles, seven and a half by four and a half inches, two cut from an outer fabric and two from a lining, plus a piece of fusible fleece ironed onto the outer pieces for structure. Everything is straight line sewing and the whole thing takes about ten minutes. Cut the outer pieces from a bandana and the case stops looking like a sewing exercise and starts looking like an accessory. Worth making three, because sunglasses live at the bottom of every bag getting scratched.
Get the full tutorial at Crazy Little Projects.
18. Bandanna Cushions
An envelope back is the beginner’s answer to pillow covers: no zipper, no buttons, just two overlapping rectangles at the back that you slide the pillow form through. The original sews it in faux leather in ten to twenty minutes, and the same construction works in bandana cotton with no changes at all. Two bandanas will cover a small lumbar pillow, and because the cover pulls off in one motion, it actually goes in the wash when somebody spills on it.
Get the full tutorial at The Merrythought.
19. Bandana Apple Pie Wrap
Set the pie plate in the middle of a red bandana, knot the corners over the top into a handle, slide the pie server through the knot and tie on a small chalkboard tag with twine. That is the entire thing, it takes about thirty seconds, and it turns a foil covered dish into something people remember. The bandana costs a dollar and stays behind as the hostess gift. Keep a few in the kitchen drawer specifically for pies going out the door.
Get the full tutorial at Two Shades of Pink.
20. DIY Bandana Placemats
Bandanas cut apart and pieced back together into a flag, which is more interesting than laying a square down flat and calling it a placemat. Red and white strips make the bars, a navy corner carries the canton, and the manufacturer already hemmed the outside edges for you. A set costs less than one designer placemat, shrugs off spaghetti sauce and watermelon juice, and comes out of the wash ready for the next night. Matching prints is optional, coordinating is plenty.
Get the full tutorial at Life in Wonderland by Hatter and Hare Events.
21. Bandana Pillows
Two bandanas laid good sides together, stitched around three and a half sides with a generous seam allowance, turned right side out, stuffed with Poly-Fil and hand stitched shut. Twenty two inch bandanas finished out at sixteen inches square. The maker also covers a three bandana envelope version that pulls off for washing, which is the smarter choice for a child’s room. At a dollar a bandana from the dollar store, stopping at one is not realistic.
Get the full tutorial at Heathered Nest.
22. Country Bumpkin Halloween Bandana Pumpkin
Fabric pumpkins sewn from bandanas, and the measurement that makes them work is a rectangle twice as long as it is wide, so fourteen by seven or thirteen by six and a half. Orange and black vintage bandanas give you Halloween without a single skeleton, and embroidery floss pulled tight through the middle cinches the segments into ridges. Nothing rots, nothing gets carved, and the whole group moves straight from October into general fall decor. The stems are simply sticks off the lawn, cut to an inch or so and hot glued on.
Get the full tutorial at Sadie Seasongoods.
23. Cute Bandana Bag
Three bandanas sewn into a slouchy shoulder bag, the kind that looks like it came from a market stall abroad. The bandana hems finish the bag opening for you, the busy prints swallow any wobbly stitching, and the finished bag folds down to nothing in a suitcase, which makes it the ideal spare for a trip. Line it with the third bandana if you want some structure, or leave it single layer for full slouch. A good project for a teenager learning the machine.
Get the full tutorial at Hello Veri.
24. Bandana Hair Bow
A no sew bow, folded and cinched from bandana fabric and mounted on a clip, and the printed border ends up striping the tails as though a designer planned it. The scraps left over from the skirts, pillows and bags on this list are exactly the right size, which makes this the official leftover eater of bandana crafting. A batch takes about an hour and stocks party favors, gifts and the hair drawer at once. They suit a toddler and a grown woman equally.
Get the full tutorial at Show Me Cute.
25. Bandana Flip Flops
Plain rubber flip flops with strips of bandana tied along the thong until the straps disappear under a ruffle of red, white and blue. The kid version is simply cut strips knotted around the strap, which children can mostly do themselves once someone starts the first few knots. The strips also pad the strap, which is the part that surprises people. A fabric flower made from folded circles can be sewn to a band and tied on, so it comes off later.
Get the full tutorial at Two Shades of Pink.
26. Bandana Skirt
The skirt that started a thousand summer sewing projects, sized for a two to three year old. One bandana is folded and cut in half; those halves are seamed into a tube for the body, and two four inch strips cut from a second bandana are folded and sewn along the bottom to add length and a contrast band. The waist is a half inch double fold casing with elastic threaded through on a safety pin. Add layers and bandanas to size it up.
Get the full tutorial at V and Co. by Vanessa Christenson.
