so. this all started with the october VMQG challenge, which i posted about here. perhaps fittingly, since i was so super gung ho about it, i was one of the people who won blocks! huraay!!
i think i was the 3rd or the 4th person to win and choose their blocks, so i ended up with a quite a varied assortment. but i did manage to snag 4 similar blocks made by one of the guild members, Ronda, and i immediately knew that i'd have to think of a fabulous project to use them for.
i decided that a scarf would be the perfect use for them, and went on a search to find fabric to use with them. i really really wanted to find more of the small black and white damask, but i didn't have any luck. (do you know who made it? i can't even find it online, cause i don't know what to search for!)
i ended up with this fun black and white bubble print, and purchased a small piece of a gorgeous purple fleece to be the backing.
i wanted to keep with ronda's design of the visible seams, so when i added the bubble fabric to create the length of the scarf, i sewed them with the seams on the outside.
![purple scarf2](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4108/5431444315_f6655676aa.jpg)
after i'd sewn the scarf length together, i laid it out, wrong sides together, in the centre of the fleece strip, and pinned it all together. i did a bunch of free motion stitching, with lots of hearts and swirls, straight stitching within the blocks, and then trimmed the fleece to match the cotton after i'd finished.
![purple](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5213/5432051218_3fbe37fd80.jpg)
![purple scarf back](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5137/5431441911_d8986aa41a.jpg)
![purple scarf3](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5179/5431444895_908d8c53fa.jpg)
and this is what i ended up with! i love it!
![purple scarf1](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4143/5432052126_20193a7ac5.jpg)
i did learn a lesson though - even when the fabric won't shrink, it's a good idea to prewash it anyway - see how the purple fleece stained my sewing machine?!
![prewash](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4073/5431445503_a221626885_m.jpg)
you can really see the difference if you look at where the sticker was!
![sticker removal](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4078/5432054690_c07f08f84b_m.jpg)
if you remember the quilts i made for the christmas bureau, you'll remember that i backed 3 or the 4 of them with fleece. i had a small piece of the brown fleece left, and realized that it was the perfect colour for my friend angie.
i dug through my stash, looking for brown prints that had a hint of orange or yellow in them, and pulled out what i found. they were all pretty small pieces, so i took them with me to a few stores, and added two more prints. i really wanted to find colours that matched her awesome hair, which is multiple shades of light brown and gold.
![brown scarf detail](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5172/5432047954_aa7e078163.jpg)
i sewed angie's scarf with the same exposed seams, because i know she likes that look.
![brown](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5256/5431437221_4d07014bc7.jpg)
because i didn't have the full 60" width of the fleece left, to make a scarf that could be wrapped around a few times, i cut off one end of what i did have, and sewed it back on, leaving a gap in the centre of the seam. when i pieced together the cotton fabrics, i left the same gap. i laid the two pieces on top of each other, matching up the gaps, and topstitched around them, creating a slit in the scarf to slip the other end through.
![brown scarf back](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5100/5432047122_7488475041.jpg)
i did less complicated quilting on angie's, just lines in several different machine stitch patterns, but i still loved how it turned out. after i'd finished the quilting, i trimmed the fleece like i did for mine, and then i decided to zigzag around the edges. i was really happy with how it turned out, and apparently so was she!
![brown scarf1](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5171/5431440473_f8ab407375.jpg)
![brown scarf2](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5138/5431441283_209c70c5f7.jpg)
oh, and i handstitched a little label on the back, just a machine embroidered "xo, amy".
![brown scarf label](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5252/5432045984_29196ce07c.jpg)
3 comments:
Love! I have a scarf obsession, and since I cannot (yet!) crochet or knit, sewing is my only choice. I have made one simple patchwork cotton and fleece scarf, but now I need to make a scrappy quilted one!
That deer fabric is kinda awesome and the random fabulousness of your black scarf rocks!
I love that brown scarf! The other one is also a fave because those are my current color obsessions!
i love me scarf as well! thanks so much amy! i love you!
Post a Comment