Ruffle Scarf

Winter may almost be over, but now I really don't want it to be... well, ok, maybe I do want it to be over, but until it is, I'll be happy to wear my new scarf!!!

I was inspired by this scarf over at Make It and Love it. And who wouldn't be??? Adorable!

I decided to do mine just a bit different by ruffling the strips that I was sewing onto the scarf as well as how I bought and cut the fabric. So, or should I say "sew," here we go...

Materials:

 

• 1 Yard of knit fabric, color of your choice
• 1 spool of coordinating, or complimenting thread
• Scissors
• Pins
• Sewing Machine

Right off the bat, my scarf is a bit different, by going with 1 yard of fabric instead of 2. The knit fabric is only 56" wide, so I couldn't cut a continuous piece that was 80" long per the original instructions. I didn't want to spend twice as much on the fabric... So I found a way around it.

Step 1 - Cut 4 strips of fabric that are 8" wide by the full width of the fabric, 56". 1 strip for the front, 1 strip for the back, 1 strip to add to the length of the front and back and the last for the strips that you will be adding to the scarf.

 

(Puffy orange cat is optional, though I do find it helps most projects.)

Step 2 - Cut one of the strips of fabric into 4 equal sections each 14" long by 8" wide.

 

Step 3 - Pin the 14" section of fabric to the ends of the front and back of your scarf.  14" + 14" + 56" = 84" - 1 inch for seam allowance give us our 83" long front and back pieces for the scarf. Sew.

 

 

Step 4 - From your last strip of 8" x 56" fabric, cut 20 pieces of fabric 12" x 1.5"  - or however else you'd like to do it... this is what worked for me, I wanted a subtle ruffle. Perhaps you want to double the 8" width and go for a 16" strip, or maybe you want a narrower ruffle and want to go with 1" - that is the advantage of doing it yourself, you get exactly what you want.

 

Step 5 - Ruffle your strips. I'm going to post my method for ruffling tomorrow, everyone has their own way of doing ruffles and I figured lets not get off on a ruffle tangent here. Ruffle however you like and if you don't have a favorite method, check back tomorrow and see what I do. And if you do have a favorite method, I'd love to hear it 'cause I'm not sure mine is the best.

Step 6 - Pin your ruffles to your scarf, starting by covering up the the seam of where you attached the end of the scarf. See the seam:

 

 

 Now you don't:

 

Step 7 - space out your remaining 4 ruffles for this end of the scarf and sew them. 

 

Ta-daaaaa!

 

Repeat steps 6 & 7 for the other end of the front, and then both ends of the front and the back.

Step 8 - Lay one side of your scarf right side down:

 

Step 9 - Then place the other side of your over the top so that you've got your wrong sides together... I know this flies in the face of all sewing projects, it is always right sides together, not wrong sides together but we are wild and crazy like that. Then pink all the way around the scarf - making sure that you've got a lot of pins, this sucker is 83"x 8"...

Step 10 - Sew all the way around and you've got a scarf!!!

(In my case you've got a scarf that you are going to spend the next 2 months snipping the threads off of.. but that could just be me.)

 

  

  

  

I think if I had it to do over again, I might have shortened the scarf by about 4-6" per end and tightened up the spacing between the ruffles... But then again, that might have been too cute and this scarf is already way too cute for me. I'm not cute, I have a hard time pulling of the "cute" look. You can't be 5' 10" and cute, at least I can't be 5' 10" and cute... it doesn't work for me. 

But I'm sure going to enjoy my cute scarf, for however much of winter we have left.

(Oh and by the way, total cost for this project, $7... sweet!)