Spring Scarf Tutorial: Part IV

Midweek already and on to scarf #4! This one is a happy scarf. Bright. Bold. I love it! I started out making t-shirt yarn with a top my mom had donated to my stash. This yarn required the fold-over-zigzag-and-invert method so as not to lose the multi-colored print. I then grabbed two different widths of cobalt blue jersey knit that were offcuts from a thrifted remnant I turned into a skirt. Finally, I grabbed the cutoff cuffs-turned straps that I'd originally thought to use on my green granny silk top found here.

I looped the braids around and sewed the ends together, then sewed the braids together at the ends. All of the raw edges and stitching will be covered up in the end.

Next step was to convert the two lengths of cobalt jersey knit into tubes by sewing up each side, inverting and then sewing the ends together. I lined up the braided knit so that all of the seams were in the same spot.

Finally, I grabbed my straps and buttoned the two together to make one long strap. This I wrapped around and around joining at the front with the button closure effectively hiding the seams! Now you can tack this in place with hand stitches to ensure that the strap doesn't slide down revealing the seams, or if your what you use is tight enough, you may not need to.

Here's the final product! I cut everything to be long enough to just hang at the perfect length without having to wrap a second time. There's no need for adjusting it to make it lay just so...its just so easy to throw on and it completely amps up a basic outfit. Can't wait to style this one :). My favorite color is green and my second favorite is blue, so this color combo is right up my alley!

You could definitely make this longer if you wanted to be able to wrap it, and any color/pattern/print combo will completely change the feel to the one you're after. So far, these scarves have been great stash busters. I'm finally finding use for some pieces that've just been sitting for a loooong time! And hopefully this convinces you that having at least a small stash of scraps and such really can be useful when looking for a quick project to brighten up your wardrobe.

Just a couple of quick alternatives on making this one 'less-sewing' or potentially no-sew. You can absolutely just tie your braids ends together or glue them with fabric glue (making sure to glue each strand together). I'd suggest glueing so as to avoid a lot of bulk where everything connects. You don't have to create tubes with your base fabric if you have wide enough strips of jersey knit that can be pulled and curled over. Also, if you want to use a cotton, silk, or other fabric for the yarn or the base, you can! Don't be afraid of raw edges (as long as its not fraying to the point of falling apart). Cotton strips can be braided and look so cute with raw edges and a mix of patterns and colors. Oh, and pinking shears can help to check any fraying as well as add a pretty detail. I've got a couple of silk remnants that I thrifted that'll be showing up in a later scarf to help illustrate the use of raw/frayed edges as a feature instead of a flaw...so stay tuned!

Peace,
Andrea

Spring Scarf Tutorials: Part II

Happy Monday :) This next scarf is one that only requires t-shirt yarn and a scrap of extra fabric (unless you want to add to it). I'll start by sharing how to make t-shirt yarn with something that's not a t-shirt (but similar) and requires extra work. :-/ The reason I include it here instead of referring you back to the t-shirt yarn tutorial I posted yesterday is because its a contrary fabric with a pattern that gets a little bit tricky.

Here goes! I started with a strapless top that I wore often before and through my pregnancy and couldn't get rid of even though I stopped wearing it. I cut it just below the bust line, leaving me with the bottom to be transformed into yarn. The top part I trimmed nice and close to the seam and can now wear it as a bandeau top under tanks and backless tops. Bonus!

These next steps are exactly the same as what you'd do with a t-shirt: cut across at even intervals, stopping about an inch from the edge.

Open up the 'spine' and cut from the top of one side down at a diagonal to the opposite side one line below (and so on and so on) until you have one continuous piece.

Now, with a regular t-shirt you would start pulling the yarn to make it curl up on itself and be done with the 'making' of the yarn. But this has a print on the outside and the fabric curls in on itself completely hiding this. So, this is where the extra work comes in. Essentially, you fold the fabric over so that the right sides are together and zigzag along the raw edges, creating a very long skinny tube.

To turn this tube right side out, I used a safety pin attached to one end and then pushed it inside working it through to the other end. This (as well as the previous step) can take a looooong time. Sit and watch a show or put on some tunes to help pass the time.

Now, my yarn is ready! At this point you can do so many different things: braid it, finger weave it (4-sided braid), or simply loop it around and around. I went for the latter, layering it from shorter to longer loops for a graduated 'necklace' look. I wanted to add a little something to it, though, and grabbed a scrap of black and white striped t-shirt material.

This piece will cover the knots that I made to secure the scarf and the ends. I sewed around three sides, turned it right side out, then wrapped it to cover the knots and hand stitched in place. (If you want to make this no-sew, use a typical t-shirt yarn and fabric glue to attach the piece that hides the knots!)

And that's that! Polka dots and stripes are a great pattern combination, and using the same color palette for both makes this a very versatile piece that can be worn as jewelry or layered with a bold solid colored scarf for more warmth. Again, your final outcome depends entirely on what you have available to you and can be embellished upon in so many ways.

As I mentioned yesterday, I'll do an end of the week round-up styling these scarves in different ways to give you a better idea of how they can be mixed up and layered with different pieces. And don't forget to come back tomorrow for yet another scarf!

Peace,
Andrea

T-shirt Yarn Tutorial

Here's a quick tutorial on how to make t-shirt yarn...there are tons of these out there, and you may already know how to do this, but just in case, I'm including this so that you have it if you need it :).

First, take a t-shirt (tank top, piece of jersey knit-the process for this would be different depending on length of fabric). This was a white t-shirt without seams on the sides that I'd cut just below the armpits, removing the hem as well. Next, fold it over leaving about an inch uncovered. Determine how wide you'll be cutting your yarn (an inch or slightly less for thin yarn and up to 2 or more inches for thicker yarn) and cut at even intervals from the folded edge over to an inch from the one edge. You'll be cutting through the top layer that is folded over but stopping before reaching the edge of the bottom layer. You can also simply leave it unfolded and cut across stopping an inch before the edge. However you like :).

Finish cutting across, open it up along the 'spine' (uncut portion) and make your first cut across diagonally from the top cut on the right or left down to the cut below on the opposite side. Continue to cut in this manner until you reach the end where you will cut down to the edge following the shape of the cut above it. Also do the same for the top to create the other end.

At this point all you have to do is pull on your yarn and watch it curl up on itself. The raw edges curl under making this a really easy project.

Finally, decide what you want to do with your yarn! You can leave it as is and simply loop it around and around gathering the ends and knotting them, you can braid or weave them as well (or knit or crochet). To braid, cut into even lengths, attach with the bobby pin (attach the bobby pin somewhere stationary) and start braiding! To determine the length of the braid you need to decide what you'll make with it: a scarf, a bracelet, etc. I always eyeball it.

Ok, now I will say that this becomes a little bit tricky if you have a patterned material that curls away from the pattern/print...meaning the pretty part ends up on the inside of the yarn! This was true of the tank top I used for the scarf in my main blog pic. So, instead of stretching the yarn, I simply braided it with the raw edges showing. This took a bit of extra time because I also was arranging it so as to keep the floral pattern as visible as possible. So there's that. Hopefully, your fabric will cooperate and not give you that problem, but test one end out before you begin pulling it. The other thing you can do, is fold it over on itself right sides together, sew down the raw edges creating an incredibly long tube that you then have to turn right side out. Yeah, I did that too and you'll get to see how that came out later this week!