When I first arrived in Hamilton this week it was awfully chilly so I ran and grabbed
myself a piece of cuddle fabric and made myself this awesome super long scarf. I can’t wait
to show you how.
I literally have been making these 60 inch long scarves for years. And they make a great
gift and they’re incredibly affordable. But they are a little bit short if you really
want to wrap them. So in comparison to today’s project look at the difference. So this is
what 60 inches makes, right? And today we’re going to use almost an entire 120. But I’m
going to show you how to join them up so they have great flow. So now, again with the 60
inch goods you’re using, I want you to get ¾ of a yard, that’s a perfect 27. But if
you look down here at my cutting surface you’ll see that both edges of that 27 inches are
really really clean and cut nicely because I’m just going to split this right up the
middle. Now there’s a trick that I can show you right here because a lot of us don’t
have rulers that are that big and/or mats that are often that large. So what I like
to do if I’m in that situation. Of course always having the bigger tool or your ladder
in the right spot before you climb it is always wise. But let’s say you don’t. I want
to share with you here. You can see my cloth tape. I have pulled half of 27 is 13 ½, right?
So I’m going to come over here to 13 ½ inches, not 12 ½ inches like I almost did,
right? So this here is going to be the line I want to cut. Then I’m going to slide my
ruler down one notch so I have a good inch line that’s running across that fold. Everything
is really squared up to that fold. And then what I’m going to do is I’m just going
to go ahead and take my rotary cutter because I’m going to stitch these edges together
so I want it really clean later on. I”m going to begin cutting. And of course I’m
going to stop because I want that cloth tape to be 60 inches tomorrow too. You can see
this is starting to come across there too, right? And then I can just continue on, continue
on. Stop before I come off of my mat. And then if I need to readjust I can just take
this and slide this down with both hands, like that yay there. Ok. And then I can take
and then the other, I want to use as much of my ruler along the cut that I’ve already
made, ok? And if you have worked with any kinds of these cuddles or minkies or anything
in the past you’ll also know because of the wonderful soft texture they have a pile
or a fiber to them that’s going to make a bit of a mess when you cut it.
So the next step I usually do right after I cut is I take a fresh lint roller and I
come through here and I lint roll the edges because that just helps me keep my studio
clean and keeps a little bit of the mess down. Or a shop vac or those little micro vacuums
are great for this too. But this just helps keep some of the fiber out of the way, right?
And then once that is all done we’re going to join these on the bias. If you’re a quilter
maker just like you do your binding. So you’re going to take one piece. And these are going
to be joined right sides together. So let’s put our dots up this way here. And to get
a mitered seam I need to have these running perpendicular meaning side to side. So I’m
going to put my other piece here like this. Now normally we could just eyeball and stitch
a line across here. But let me show you what I’ve done on a piece that I’ve already
completed.
So the big trick to getting this really accurate for that nice miter, is one I’m using lots
of pins. I’m probably using more pins in today’s demonstration than I’ve used in
all of the other tutorials combined as a matter of fact. I’ve used six of them. So I’ve
got one, two, three, four, five, and six to secure it. And then I’m also going to make
a really nice straight line with my micro sharpie. If you’re using really light colored
maybe chalk is better. But with the black on the other side I”m perfect to do this.
I sharpie it real nice. And then that way when I go to my sewing machine I’m going
to be able to go ahead and stitch straight along that line very nicely. And I’ve already
done that so I can literally now pull my pins out, ok?
Now we do need to trim our excess out of the way. I’m going to use my rotary cutter and
ruler for that. In quilting you usually give yourself about a quarter inch seam allowance.
Here I’m going to give myself about ⅜ seam allowance, maybe a little bit larger.
I want a little bit more meat in there over time. These are also washable projects, ok?
I’m going to take the little extra triangles off because I just want it to be as easy and
smooth as possible in there. And now we’re totally prepped out. Except for, if you know
me I’m going to make a tube and so I have a tube turning trick also.
So here we’re going to build this out. And on one end I have already secured a safety
pin and a piece of twine or rope or anything that as I begin to lay this thing together,
right sides together this is going to get stitched in so that is my pull cord that I
can pull it right sides back out. So we’re going to go ahead and just blast through this
real careful, ok? We’ve got a long distance to sew. And I’ve put a nice edge guide on
my machine. And it’s also positioned at about ⅜. I’ve got some polyester thread
in today. And check it out, like let’s say it’s moving around on you. Let’s say you’re
feeling like it’s flipping around. Hey there is nothing wrong with taking some of those
pins, we already know how to use them. We used six today, right? You could put one every
few inches if you’ve not worked with this stuff before. It’s no problem. Right you
could do that. Just don’t sew over the pins. It’s really not good for your sewing machine.
Ok, I’m just going to adjust that edge guide a little bit further over, just how I like
it. We’re going to backstitch at the beginning. We want that secure. We’ll turn that up
underneath. And now I can go into caffeinated mode. I’m going to watch out for that string
inside. I don’t want to stitch that. I just want it there. And I’ll see you at the other
end.
Hey real quick let me zap out of caffeination mode here. I didn’t point out earlier but
I did open my seams on that mitered corner. You can probably see them as I’m approaching
the machine here. So instead of folding them to one side I’ve opened them up to make
it super flat and easy as I go through. That’s just to eliminate the bulk. Ok, time for another
caffeination, here we go. Alright, the caffeine is starting to wear off. I’m going to backstitch
at the end. And what you’re looking at here is that 120 inches-ish of tube all stitched
together right sides. But remember I’ve got that cord hanging out the bottom end.
So now what I can start to do is just pull slowly. I kind of like to wad it up at the
end where the safety pin is at. Don’t tug too hard on the safety pin unless it’s really
secure. Now this thing is so wide that it should turn inside pretty quick and easy for
me, like that. But I do like to give it a little start on the end. Ok, and then I’m
just kind of sliding it, sliding it like this, here we come. And then once I’ve got my
hand over here, instead of pulling the cord, I’m pulling the fabric. And it pops out
just like that so super easy, right? Ok, we just have a few last steps to do. And I can
show you really just on one end. So what we’ll do is we’ll take off the safety pin.
We’re going to do the finishing now. So if you were interested in putting any kind
of trim. Let’s talk about a couple of quick options. So first of all you could stitch
in some rick rack, some ball fringe. Some wonderful eyelash yarns. Anything like that
can be stuck right in here. Technically this is a finished edge so you could really put
what you wanted there and stitch it over. I wanted mine to be a masculine scarf so I
didn’t put pink trim or anything like that out of the bottom. One of the other things
you could do is you could do a stitch line across here which is really cool and you could
scissor cut your own trim into your scarves. That’s why we leave them really long at
first. So there’s a lot of options. Here’s the easiest though. We’re simply going to
take and roll this to the inside about two inches, ok? And as I’m doing this, I want
to point out that it’s going to be really hard for you to see on camera. But right here
is that seam. So what I’m doing is I’m positioning my seam so that it will be technically
centered on what I will wear as the back of the scarf. So right here, I don’t know if
you can see it but I can feel it, my seam is right here. And I’m making sure everything
is nice and flat and tidy. I’m going to go back to my machine. Again I have an inch
maybe an inch and a half worth of fabric up in there. I like it because it kind of feels
like it adds a little bit of extra bulk for me.
Back at the sewing machine I’m going to stitch the bottom piece first against that
same edge guide. Lock in my stitching. Sometimes you might need to give it a little encouragement.
There’s lots of thickness layers there. Don’t push too hard, you could lose a needle
over that. And then as I come to the end again backstitch . And then what I also like to
do is I like to do one up maybe another inch just for character. So I’m just going to
come up one more inch. And what I’m really doing is I can feel where the bulk has been
turned under and I’m catching the top of that bulk actually. And I’m going to give
it a little more encouragement. And here we go. Backstitch. And that end is all done.
You have one more end to do on your side. But it is time to snuggle up. Put that awesome
scarf to use. Get it outside in the cold weather and do something awesome. And I want to hear
all about it in the comments below. What do you like to do outside in the winter when
you’re all bundled up? And while you’re thinking of that I’m going to get back in
my studio where it’s toasty warm and make some new great stuff for you here at Man Sewing.