Flannel Scarf

 Do you love to wear a cozy scarf? 

I do & I can't believe it took me years to make one of these lovely scarves!

 Start with 1 old flannel shirt... I think this one was given to be my my BFF Tina in 1989 during my Northern Exposure phase.

Add another flannel shirt...

 And another.

 Cut the back out of your flannel shirt.  Mine ended up being approximately 16" wide x 22" long since these were oversized shirts.  If you shirts are smaller/more fitted, you may need to use 4 shirts to get the length you want.

 Sew the 3 shirt ends together.  Since flannel will fray with wash & wear, I folded over the seam allowance to one side & used zig zag stitch to enclose the raw edges.

 I ended up with one really long scarf (about 65").  At this point I switched gears a bit & decided to sew the scarf in a circle to make an infinity scarf.  If your scarf is shorter than 58", I would not recommend this as you won't be able to easily slip it on & off.

 I hemmed the edges with a simple zig zag stitch again to prevent fraying.

 Super cute scarf!

I really like that I can wear it with different plaids in the front

depending on the other colors I'm wearing.

 I tried it with blue striped dress shirts too...

Thank you, Karla

Kerchief Skirt

Hi All, I'm entering an on-line contest for a skirt I made. I'm entering it in the "Straight Skirt" category at THIS BLOG.

The rules were very loose... Luckily it can be any skirt you ever made! I was originally thinking of entering my 6th grade 4-H project. It was a ditsy floral print on a navy blue ground. It had 3 gathered tiers with white lace in between each tier. My Grandma taught me everything I needed to know about sewing & this was my first project we ever worked on together. I remember more that once she made me rip it out & do it over. I also remember even throwing it in the garbage. Now look at me! I give her credit for all the sewing skills I have. Since this skirt was "no longer available", I'm entering my kerchief skirt.

I made about 7 years ago. I purchased a basket of old hankies at an estate sale for $1.00 each. There was over a dozen & I just fell in love with them.

There was no pattern, I just started laying them out to see what ones looked good together. I knew I wanted it to be bias & that I DID NOT want a kerchief hem (too predictable). Then I just started to sew then together. Many of the seams overlapped, so you can see the scalloped edge detail. One I got a few sewed together I used a tried & true skirt pattern to make sure I was making it the correct size. I just make the waist elastic & lined it with a white fabric I had on hand.

Wish me luck in the contest.

Thanks, Karla

Repurposed Tee

3 easy things to do with an old Tee shirt… WARNING: they do require a little sewing.

Scarf #1: Take an old tee, cut off the hem & cut it just below the arm pits. Then cut that in half lengthwise (roughly 6-8” depending on the size of the tee).


Cut off the side seams from one side. Open up the strips of fabric & sew the ends together so you have one long piece. About 1” in from the long edges, I used my ruffle attachment to gather it all up. If you don’t have this, you have to gather it the old fashioned way (really long basting stitch, pull a thread to the desired shirring, knot it off & re-stitch it with a regular stitch to really secure it). The pink tee used was a fitted tee & once it was all gathered up, it wasn’t really long enough to tie. So I wrapped it around my neck, let one edge peek out under a cardigan and used a safety pin at the front where they overlapped. It was a ruffled Dickie! The second scarf I made was from a bigger tee & it gathered up to the perfect length. See here for full tutorial. Vermillion Rules: http://vermillionrules.blogspot.com/2010/01/t-shirt-ruffle-scarf-tutorial.html

Scarf #2: I’ve made a bunch of these for myself & family. Take an old tee, cut off the hem & cut the tee up into 4x4 squares (use the sleeves too). You will end up with 60+ squares. Lay the squares so that the corners of one square ends in the center of the square below it and so on (if the corners overlap slightly or if there is a little space between them, that is OK, you will never notice). Sew down the center of the square corner to corner… keep overlapping & sewing until all your squares are used up. You will end up with one really really long scarf. Then fold the scarf in half & in half again them wrap it around my neck & loop it thru. If you are using a jersey tee, once you wash it, the edges will curl, making it even more ruffle looking.

Ruffles & stuff scarf: http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2009/08/super-easy-t-shirt-scarf.html

BAG: use a plate to cut off the neck & sleeves. Cut off the hem. Since, the shoulder seams then become the handles, a reinforced the shoulder seams with a Zig Zag stitch. Turn the tee inside out & stitch the bottom closed… Keep the side seams of the tee in their usual place. Turn it right side out & you now have a great little kid friendly knit bag for boys to carry their stuff around in. Tee- shirt bag: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/good-thing-t-shirt-bag