Tips on Making Bandanas

People use bandanas for all sorts of things. They wear them as an accessory on their clothing, tie them on bags or cover their head with them. People also put them on cats and dogs. Making your own bandanas allows you to choose your own prints so you have a unique accessory.

Bandana fabric is usually composed of a cotton polyester blend. This makes the bandana stiff enough to hold shape and machine washable. Cotton polyester blends don't shrink when washed, either. That said, bandanas can also be made from other fabrics such as denim. It is best to get 1 yard of fabric. The fabric can be a print or a solid color based upon preference.

Before making your bandana, it is important to know what size of you are making. The standard bandana size is 22 by 22 inches.

If you are making a bandana for a cat or small dog, make your square 14 by 14 inches. Larger dogs may need a square that is 26 by 26 inches. sew it as a square and fold it in half to put it on your pet, or you can cut the square in half and sew the two sides together. This will make your bandana a triangle shape.

When putting together your bandana, you can hem the edges around the perimeter. You can also cut the square in half, place the two right sides of fabric together and hem around the perimeter, leaving a small opening to reverse the bandana to the right side. Sew the opening shut after reversing it.

Bandanas can be decorated so they are more unique and fancy. You can use iron-on decals or letters to decorate them. You can also sew beads on them. Or you can make them reversible by using one print or color on one side and another fabric print or color on the other side.