Dots and Stripes Bandana

Hello! I’m so excited to be contributing to Playful Learning, a blog and enterprise I’ve long admired and been incredibly inspired by. Children love to wear items of their own design, so today I’m sharing a bandana decorating project that’s simple to make but requires a wee bit of patience and time. It’s perfect for a long lazy afternoon or as a weekend activity. It’s a great team project too–several children can work on each piece together, or a parent and child can collaborate on it.

You’ll need very few materials:

• Fabric markers
• A white bandana or square scarf
• Masking tape

To start, secure your bandana to a clean flat surface using masking tape on all four sides. Leave a narrow strip of fabric on each side that you will color and that will serve as a border.

Next, stretch masking tape over your bandana to make shapes and patterns. Here we made triangles but you could do squares, rectangles or other shapes as well.

Select a simple color scheme and use fabric markers to fill in the shapes made by the masking tape. You can fill in the shapes completely or decorate them with dots, stripes, or other patterns, or do a combination of both.

Fill in the border around the bandana with markers.

Remove all the masking tape and follow the directions for setting your fabric markers by either ironing the bandana or running it through the dryer.

There are so many fun ways to use a pretty bandana: as a hair accessory, a napkin, a decorative accent on a bicycle or bag. It’s something to be enjoyed all summer long!