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Wednesday, December 13, 2017

A Fur Scarf

My faux fur scarf, final version


     I wanted a 'fur' scarf to add to my winter wardrobe.  I had seen a couple in the stores but none of them wowed me or they were too expensive.  While shopping at JoAnn Fabrics I saw this silky soft faux fur.  It was on sale so I bought a1/2 yard.

Elastic loop on the back of the scarf

     I didn't want to figure out how to do the buttonhole thing that most of the scarves I saw had.  I decided to just add an elastic loop to the back instead.

Scarf version 1

     I cut a piece of the fur, 9" x 45", and then rounded the corners.  I then cut a piece of lining the same size and sewed the two together with right sides, leaving an opening for turning.  Before sewing them together I added an elastic loop to the right side of the lining piece.  I just machine sewed the opening closed, the stitches disappeared in the pile of the faux fur.  I then spent quite a bit of time picking the pile out from the seams.

Gathering stitches near the elastic loop


     When I had finished, I put it on my mannequin and it looked great but when I put it on, it seemed to not want to lay nice and the lining kept shifting to the front around where the elastic loop was.  I solved that by taking large basting stitches to gather it up slightly and that did the trick.  Should be a fun addition to my winter wardrobe.

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Sweatshirt Pillows

Sweatshirt pillows


     A client had several sweatshirts that her mom had embroidered.  No-one was going to wear the sweatshirts but she really liked the embroidery and wanted to share with other family members.

Scarecrow pillow

     She opted for pillows to be able to enjoy the embroidery.  We chose a rectangular form to go along with the more horizontal nature of the designs.  Because the designs were placed closer to the neck, I was not able to center them in the pillow.  I did cut as close as possible to the neck opening to bring the design as close as I could to the middle.

Shamrock pillow

     After cutting the front apart from the back, I applied iron-on interfacing  to the back, the same as when I do my t-shirt quilts.  I then cut the shape for the front.  With limited fabric for the back, I only did a single fold over for the opening flap.  Since it is a knit fabric, it is not going to ravel.

Snowmen pillow

     I did an overlap opening in the back to make it easy to remove the insert for washing when necessary.  What a fun way to preserve some memories.