Recently, I have been thinking a lot about saving money and about how to get the most clothing bang for my buck (as you might recall from this post). I had a big bag I was about to drop off at Goodwill full of clothing that I purged from the smartest and I's closet (don't tell the smartest, but roughly 1/3 of them were actually his), but before I shoved it in my trunk, I did a quick once-over to make sure there wasn't anything that I thought I could salvage and use for something else.
Peering at me from the very top of the bag were a couple of the smartest's plaid flannel shirts. That I bought him. Because I love plaid. Know who doesn't so much love plaid? The smartest. I rescued the shirts, and started pondering what I thought my (ahem, limited) capabilities would allow me to make out of them.
After much ado, I decided to attempt to make an infinity scarf. I decided this for two reasons. 1). I love infinity scarves, probably because I have a neck complex. 2). It would only require that I sew one side of one thing. It just doesn't get much easier than that folks.
Ok- down to brass tacks:
What you need:
- Old shirt you wish to wrap around your neck
- Sewing machine
- Scissors
- Pins
- Seamripper (well, you might not, but I almost always do)
What you do:
1). Lay out the shirt and decide how thick you want your scarf to be. Keep in mind that we will be folding over an inch or two for making the edges pretty. I used the bottom of the shirt as one side, even though it was slope-y, because I only wanted to do one side of sewing. Feel free to be far more adventurous than I.
1.5). Button your shirt. Or at least, I did. Because I am hopelessly lazy and didn't want to cut the sides separately. In case you were wondering, this DID bite me in the butt a little bit.
2). Cut shirt in straight line from side to side. Our dining room table actually has grooves like the super legit fabric table at Hobby Lobby does. Which is great for cutting things... but not so much for keep food from being perpetually lodged in the cracks.
3). Unbutton shirt and lay flat
4). Fold over fabric so that we can sew the ragged edge and make it pretty. At this point, I discovered that when I say "cut straight", I actually mean "cut unevenly and end up with 2" worth of variation between the highest and lowest point". So I had to fold over a bunch more than you will. I used the pattern of the plaid as my folding guide, rather than measuring. It seemed to work pretty well- but your shirt might not be plaid. In that event, measure as you pin.
5). Sew. Straight. Ish. I used white thread, because the last time I attempted to thread my bobbin it took roughly 4 hours, which culminated in my face timing mama artist begging for help. The white thread will probably be staying exactly where it is for awhile. You'll note that my seam isn't straight. I would like to blame that on the fact that the puppy got really interested in what I was doing about 1/2 of the way in, and came over and started pushing on my pedal foot as I tried to regulate my speed.
6). Do whatever you do to finish off your seam. I sewed, then reversed and sewed backwards, then sewed forwards, then tied off my thread. Is this the appropriate finishing method? Most definitely not. But I'm sort of rebellious, so I didn't take the time to google what the appropriate action was.
7). Voila! A lovely new scarf for you to wear. The perk of this scarf is that you can unbutton it and wear it straight, like a normal scarf, or you can wear it as an infinity scarf. Mine wraps around my neck twice, but it is a wee bit tight, so I might suggest using a larger shirt than I did. Or having a thinner neck that I do. Either one.
To keep things perfectly honest... I am pretty sure I literally took at least 70 photos to get those three sort of ok ones. 70. It was ridiculous. About halfway through, the puppy came over to see what I was doing, and I felt appropriately judged.
What have you been stealing from your husband's side of the closet and mutilating lately?
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