Recently my dear friend Emily gave my wife Jenny a beautiful patchwork infinity scarf
made from wool. Well I found this incredible flannel bundle and I thought, Oh I’ve got
to make one. Let’s get started.
I must say I don’t believe I have found a flannel fabric that I like better. This
is Robert Kaufman’s Shetland Flannel. And it handles and sews like butter. I just love
it. But my goodness I fell in love with that fat quarter bundle. And I thought I want to
make some awesome infinity scarves out of it. And this bundle with all of the colors
in there. And literally I broke it apart and I created six different colorways to make
all of these wonderful patchwork scarves. Now the construction is incredibly easy. I’m
going to walk you through it. I’ve actually approached it a couple of different ways.
So this I think is the most efficient way to handle this. From your bundle and of course
you could always use yardage. Missouri Star has a bunch of the Shetland Flannel yardage
but we’re doing our bundle. And they’re fat quarters. So you’re going to take three
fat quarters and they could be coordinated based on color or they could be coordinated
based on the houndstooth print or whatever textures of the flannel or both. It works
great.
Once you have them all chosen, break them all apart, make your color families. Then
I want you to build up a pile. We’re going to press and cut all of these three layers
at once. Or I should say three fabrics at once, six layers. So I’ve already pressed
these two and I’m laying them nice and flat along the fold here, lining them up. And I’m
also going to go ahead and press this to get the creases out. And one of the things I found
with this flannel, like I said, it really cuts beautifully and it sews beautifully.
The more prep time we have the better all of the sewing process is going to go. Because
we have a really long seam that we’re going to make. So just take a time and make sure
we get really good clean cuts. Ok I’m going to line this up here. And I’m also looking
at the corners because I’m going to trim down those edges here. Ok. So it starts by
taking off the selvedges. And I want to show you a trick. If you’ve got a short ruler
and a long cut, watch this. So first what I’m going to do is I’m going to go ahead
and I’m going to take my ruler. And I’m going to come over here to this line and I’m
looking at the ten and a quarter line. And I chose ten and a quarter because when I cut
over here it will remove the selvedges through all the layers. It’s a little bit thick
so I want you to push down on the ruler, have a good sharp blade in your cutter and slice
away. Now here’s the trick. I’m going to move this to expose it. And I’m going
to move my ruler up just as little as I need to get to the top. Now I’m still looking
at this line to cut and this line over here. That 10 ¼ to keep everything nice and square.
So that cuts through to finish like that. Now we’re going to true up our edge. So
I’m rotating because I’m right handed. The first cut I want you to take off as little
as possible. So I’m looking at my edge of my flannel to see that I’m just getting
a nice straight cut here. And now the pieces I’ve done for the scarf that you see me
wearing, it’s nice and thick, nice and wide. It’s going to be the 8 ¾ inch cut. So I’m
taking over here. I’m looking at 8 ¾ distance. Now if you’re using your own fabric of course
you’re really just going to split this in half, ok? So I’m looking here, 8 ¾. I’m
going quick and I don’t want to mess this up. I want to make another great scarf when
I’m done here. So there’s the first cut. We’re going
to set that aside. I’m going to slide this over and I’m going to 8 ¾. Now I’ve got
plenty out here but let’s say you realize, I didn’t my math right. Well cut what you
need here and go back and shave down the other piece. It’s really just kind of a design
as you go project. Ok but now I have two perfect sets, six rectangles at the moment. But I
also want to go ahead and make a couple extra small squares for some patchwork. I’ll show
you the layout here. So I’m just going to choose any two fabrics. And I’m going to
cut them basically in half. So I’m just going to come down here looking at all the
lines on my ruler, keeping it nice and square. I’m going to cut the fold out here so now
I technically two, four squares like that. Now it’s layout time. Ok what you’re going
to do is you’re going to marry in two rectangles and two of the squares. And what I don’t
want is any of your same fabrics touching. And eventually this is going to loop back
around here to make the entire infinity. So if you look I have different fabrics all the
way down. And I will make a similar combination but I want to show you the way I stitch these
together.
Let me show you in this example what I’m talking about about stitching together all
of our strips. Now first I did have a rectangle and two squares in the middle and a rectangle.
And on the other layout I kind of started with a square then I put my two rectangles
in the middle and finished with a square. Either way your rules are you always have
different fabrics touching when you come around in each individual strip, right? And now you’re
also going to have four of these shorter edges. One and only one of them we’re going to
do a special trick. We’re going to take it and we’re going to fold it to the wrong
side. And I’m just going to do a really fine little stitch just to basically get rid
of that raw edge. We’re going to use that for closing that scarf up at the very, very
end. So once all my pieces were patchworked together I want to press them. And I actually
press them on this table so I can start to build them to get ready to stitch.
So I literally have my iron nice and hot. And I come through. And I’m pressing and
setting my seams, pressing and setting my seams as I lay it all across the table, right?
But then at this point I’ll drag it all the way through I’ve pressed these pretty
darn well so I’m just going to keep on moving. Then what I want to do is I want to take the
ends that were not that special end that I treated, the raw edge ends. And we’re going
to start down here and I’m going to lay those nice together. And the reason I did
the squares and the rectangle combination is so I don’t have any seams that match
up here, right? I don’t have another seam underneath there that I have to make sure
is perfect. And then as I go through here I like to use these wonder clips. And what
I will do on the wonder clips, starting about a good, oh two inches down or so on these
raw edges I’m just going to take a wonder clip and go down about every eight to ten
inches while I pat and smooth the two layers of flannel together. And then what I’m going
to do is I’m going to finish clipping this all out and I’ll meet you back at the sewing
machine to show you how to get started. 647
We’re ready to start sewing and part of the work of this, again I just want these
big long seams to go together nicely. So I’m keeping the weight of the scarf instead of
it being in my lap kind of on the table next to me. And as a reminder I’m starting up
here where those two raw edges were. But I also am going to start down about an inch
or so because we’re going to eventually join those two seams too. Ok and I need that
room to work. So I’m going to take a little stitch. I’m going to backstitch. I’m going
to move my wonder clip out of the way and then with just a quarter of an inch. I’m
going to take a nice slow stitch. And what I want you to do is I want you to go ahead
and finish the entire run but once you’re done with that side I want you to come back
and start at the same side again so that you’re using that raw edge. So you’ll be flipping
the scarf over and looking at another side, right? Also starting about one inch down with
the backstitch like yay to lock that in. And then you’ll run that seam all the way until
the end. And I’ve got another sample already set up to show you that step, right? So let
me just slide this out of the way.
And here is one of my favorite combinations in the gray family. And I’ll just quickly
point out here is that end where I have left the one inch opening so I can go ahead and
get in there and stitch. It’s a full tube. This is that special end that was already
stitched over. And now we’re just going to reach our hand in here. You don’t need
the Man Sewing tube trick. Your arm will fit here. Grab an end and pull it out nice. Now
at this point if you’d like to take a little time and press I definitely recommend it.
Ok we’ll be topstitching these edges. But I want to show you the finishing step. So
I’m just going to say press it through. Now what I want you to do is I want you to
come down here where you have that opening. Bring it around to the side that is the raw
edge. So I’ve got a raw edge in my right hand, a raw edge in my left hand. And these
are coming around right sides together. I’m going to go ahead and get this into the machine
here with that same quarter inch seam allowance. So just like I joined everything else earlier.
And that inch gives us great room to work. Let’s go ahead and back stitch up here.
And I’m just going to line up my pieces. Finish this off real quick for us. And at
this point we’re going to actually, I should have pointed out make sure you don’t have
any twists in your scarf. I haven’t had that happen but I can see where it would.
Ok, so come in real close. We’ve got these raw edges in here. We’ve got this finished
edge here. This will be the very last edge that we address. So as I get ready to topstitch
these outer edges I want to make sure I’m just kind of accounting for everything. And
I’ve got another sample where I set it up and I think you can see the threads a little
bit better.
****It’s this wonderful red combination here, ok? And so I have done a little bit
more work on this one than where we’re at in the demo but I want you to be able to see
what I’m really talking about. So this is the topstitching that will actually help secure
and flatten out the scarf beautifully. We’re going to do both sides exactly the same. I’m
going to show you as we finish over here. So as I come into the machine I have a stiletto,
a bamboo skewer, a scissor tip or something handy. And I’m using my edge guide. And
I’ve got my topstitching and the topstitching is nice. I’m always kind of pulling on this
outer edge and coming down this seam. Let’s lock that thread in because I’m kind of
picking up here. You will still be in the process you’re doing. And as I come down
what I want to do is I’m going to stop for a second. Let me move this edge guide so you
can really see what we’re talking about here. Ok just slide that out of the way. What
we’re going to do is we’re going to take the piece that has the finished edge. And
it’s going to lay on top of the piece that has the raw edge. And I’m also just making
sure that my seams are nice along the edge. And I’m going to hold that with my stiletto
as I finish it out. Of course you would have your seam guide still right there but I just
moved it so you can see. And you’ve captured that corner. . And you did the same when you
started on the other side as well. I actually normally do that as I’m starting so that
the rest of the topstitching works great. Once that is done I pull the seam guide completely
off the machine. And I prepare to close it. And I’m going to close it by taking the
finished edge that special edge we created earlier. I’m going to lay it right under
the needle. And I’m going to tuck underneath that raw edge. I didn’t even try to fold
it. I left the raw edge running long so I have the body of it. I’m going to backstitch
to secure again. And I’m just stitching down that finished edge which is finishing
off our entire project. Now the other benefit of this I learned, I’ve made several of
these samples, you might find that you have a little bit of extra ripple or something
happening in here. You can kind of adjust for it at the edge if you need by tucking
up at that raw edge a little further if you had to. I’m bragging, mine is about perfect
if I may say. It might be the only sewing project that ever turns out this good in my
life. Maybe it’s because I went slow. I only had 80 cups of coffee this morning.
Now technically this scarf is literally all done. Because once you’ve finished off that
straight edge, I’d like you to go back and topstitch all of your short seams. Now some
places you’re going to topstitch it’s going to come out and show as a single line
on the other side. Some places like this where you had seams that were close, it’s going
to make some extra character. So you can add topstitching to also add character. You don’t
do double lines of topstitching just to make it look really, really terrific. Not only
that as you know I love the way the scarves and as I said earlier this flannel not only
sews beautifully but it feels beautifully as well. So Robert Kaufman my hat is off to
you for a fantastic flannel for these awesome infinity scarves. And I’ve just got to wander
around town showing it off while you start yours right here at Man Sewing.
Thanks for being a Man Sewing fan. It’s great to have you out there encouraging me
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