T-shirt rag sweatbands are great for girls camp, since camp tends to sometimes be a sweaty experience. 😊
I love the fact that the sweatbands can be a free craft, which is great if you want to spend your camp budget on other things.
There are several ways to braid the sweatbands, but I’ll give you instructions for the easiest below.
❤️️Possible Spiritual Applications
1. As I’ve mentioned before, I love the idea of how we are linked together to make a better whole. So, with the t-shirt sweatbands, you can show the young women one piece of t-shirt material and talk about how by itself, it’s fine, but then show them a “unified” sweatband with a few pieces braided and point out that it’s more useful, soaks up more sweat (representing trials) and looks even cooler.
2. If you’re needing to emphasize that all types of people and personalities are great, you could use a multi-colored rag sweatband and talk about how with all the colors, it’s more interesting and goes with more things (i.e., can work with more types of trials).
3. What are your ideas? I’d love to hear them.
👀Directions
- Collect old t-shirts and cut or tear them into 1-2 inch strips, depending on the look you’re after. I like the look of at least 2-inch strips.
- Tie three strips of material together. You can most easily do this by holding all three and pretending it’s just one, then tying a normal knot.
- Braid the three strips as you would braid your hair. 🙂
- Tie off the ends. *If you want a more tidy look on the ends of the sweatband, you can stitch over both ends and then cut off the knot at each end.
- To wear, wrap around forehead and tie at the back of your head, or some girls like to just wear them around their neck to soak up perspiration. You can also wet them with cold water to keep yourself cooler! Or, put them in an icebox or cooler and wear them frozen if you’re brave.
💡This is a great craft you can have available if the girls get bored, or it could be an activity that all the girls do at once. Since it’s so quick and easy, it works well at camp or as a pre-camp activity.
Also, there are many, many ways you can teach the young women to tie their sweatbands. I would stick with this easiest one to teach the whole group, but then you can have some samples and instructions for anyone who wants to make another one that’s more intricate.
Enjoy!
ChurchofJesusChristYoungWomen.com