tutorial – make a cooling bandanna
July 20, 2007 by Chloe Findlay-Harder
Filed under Home & Living
I thought that this would be a perfect project for the dog days of summer 
To make your own cooling bandanna (I’ve seen them in stores for as much as $20!) you’ll need:
- a piece of tightly-woven cotton fabric (quilting cotton is perfect for this)
- a couple of teaspoons of silica gel crystals (it’s sold in gardening supply stores as watering gel for plants, or in craft stores as “cracked ice”
- your normal sewing machine supplies: thread, scissors, a ruler etc
Cut a rectangle of fabric 5 inches long by 24 – 26 inches long:
Now fold it in half lengthwise & press with an iron:
Open it up again and fold up one long edge 3/8 inch and press:
Fold the fabric along the centre seam again and press up 3/8 inch on the other side of the fabric. You should now have a tube of fabric with no raw edges on the long edges. Now you need to fold down one short edge 3/8 inch as well. Make sure all the edges are folded towards the wrong side of the fabric! The bandanna has tapered ends – we need to form one end now. Fold the unstitched side of the tube in to the inside – like this:
Repeat on the other side and press. Pin the tapered edge – it should look like this:
All the edges are matching and we can now go ahead and pin up the long side of the bandanna. Measure 5 inches from the tip and place a pin there:
You can now stitch around the bandanna, stopping 5 inches from the other end. Stitch across the bandanna where you marked it with a pin:
You should have a stitch tube, with one tapered end. Measure out 2 teaspoons of the silica gel crystals (that’s all it takes!) and carefully fill the bandanna with it. Shake all the crystals down to the end.
Fold & press the open end, just like you pressed the first one, to create a tapered end. Mark 5 inches from the end and pin it. Make sure there aren’t any stray crystals in the end that you’re sewing closed – sewing machine needles don’t like them!
Stitch the end closed and sew across at the 5 inch mark again. Trim all your loose threads. Let the bandanna soak for an hour in cold water & you’re good to go!
Keep your bandanna in the fridge overnight for extra cooling power. Let the bandanna dry out completely if you’re not going to use it – it can mildew if you leave it damp for extended periods of time, especially if it’s left in a plastic bag.
Great idea! I’ll make some of these for a friend of mine who is a surveyor. He is in the hot, hot sun all day and this will be perfect. Thanks for sharing!