Lacy Scarf

I've had a piece of fabric in my stash for quite a while, maybe about twenty years--seriously!  I am so glad that I kept it, because it has now become two separate scarves.

 

I thought it would be nice to add some lace as part of the scarf.  Both to be decorative, as well as to make the fabric go a little farther.  I had seen this done on Pinterest, so thats partly where the idea originated.

Below is a close-up of the fabric, which is a very delicate little floral pattern.  It also has that really fine feel of some Italian cottons, or Liberty cottons.  It is not, however, a Liberty fabric.  It really is quite old, and was once a full skirt for myself.  (MisterStitches even remembers the skirt!)   I think I added a lace trim to the bottom of the skirt, and might have involved some lace at the waistband.  I loved that skirt!

So here are the two scarves, one made with pink lace and one made with white lace, because I just could not decide.  I did have some trouble sewing the lace.  With my first attempt it gathered terribly.  So I put out a plea to my quilt guild, asking for help.  Right away I had several responses, several of which suggested using a stabilizer of some kind.  (Really, I should have thought of that!  Rookie mistake!)  Using the paper stabilizer fixed my problem and made the scarves turn out well.

As soon as I moved the chair to take these photos, KittyStitches had to jump up on the chair to get in the picture, too!

There is actually a little bit of cat tail on the left side of the photo below!

Scarf From A T-shirt

I saw a post on Pinterest about making a scarf out of a t-shirt.  (Here)  Then, when a friend (thank you, GS) offered me an unused t-shirt, I grabbed it up!  The directions are good, as well as simple.  

I simply cut crosswise strips (about 1 to 1 1/2" wide).  I used only the main part of the shirt, from under the arms to the bottom, but not including the bottom hem.  Since I broke my arm in May, I still don't have enough strength in my left hand/arm to hold down the ruler, which means that I can't use my rotary cutter.  So I had to use a scissors.  The only downside to this is that some of the strips had little jags or jogs on them.  But I don't think it's very noticeable.

Then came the fun part.  I stretched out each and every "circle" I had cut.  That makes the strips curl up into little rolls.

I took six of the strips and braided them together into two braids.  

Then I simply gathered them all up together.  For the "fastener" I cut some of the t-shirt fabric from an unused sleeve.  The braids got loosely sewn by hand into the bunch of rings.  

Then the fastener got sewn shut, enclosing all the loops and the ends of the braids.  Now I'm thinking if I had made the fastener a little prettier (maybe no raw edges showing), that would make it feasible to wear the scarf with the fastener partway down the side.  For another look.

Back side of the "fastener."

And here is my scarf.  I was actually wanting to make a scarf in a neutral tone, so this really worked for me.