Here’s a pretty transitional piece for crisp autumn weather. I combined gauzy voile with flannel to make a scarf that’s light as a feather, yet nice and warm. As a little bonus detail, it’s hand-quilted with variegated thread, which creates a lovely stitch pattern on the flannel side. (If you think hand-quilting is hard, I promise my video will change your mind!)
Materials:
- 1 yard Spoonflower voile (I’m using Splatch! by Mariao here.)
- 1 yard lightweight flannel
- Quilting thread, variegated (Optional; all-purpose sewing thread will work, too.)
- Sewing thread
- Hand sewing needle
- Sewing machine
All seam allowances for this project are ½”.
A note on yardage: I was able to get two scarves out of one yard each of voile and flannel. If you’d rather not have a seam in the center of your scarf, you can always start with two yards of each fabric and cut 8″ x 72″ rectangles. In fact, if you start with two-yard pieces, you can make four scarves at once, and have plenty for gifting!
A note on the scarf size: Your finished scarf will measure 7″ x 70″, but feel free to customize this to your liking. When I’m trying to decide on the dimensions for a scarf project, I’ll often cut a piece of scrap fabric to the size I’m considering (or, sew several pieces together if I need to to get the right length). Then I can go to a mirror and wrap and drape this around my neck and see how it looks. If you decide on a different length and width, just add another inch to both dimensions to cover your seam allowances and you’re all set.
And finally, a note on pre-washing: I recommend pre-washing both the voile and the flannel – it makes them even softer and drapier. Use a cold water wash with just a little soap on a delicate cycle, and tumble dry with low or no heat. Both fabrics, however, will tend to fray at the cut edges during laundering, so you might want to zig zag stitch along these edges before washing. When fabrics are dry again, press them before you move on to Step 1.
1. Cut two long rectangles from the voile, each measuring 8″ x 36″. We’ll sew these together to make one long rectangle. So, place them right sides together, matching up one of the 8″ edges. Pin the fabric here, and sew along this edge. Press the seam allowance open.
2. Cut the same size pieces from the flannel now, and sew them together in the same manner. You should now have two very long rectangles; one of voile and one of flannel.
3. Place these two rectangles together with right sides facing. Match up all four edges and pin them together. Sew along the two long edges only. (Don’t sew the two short edges right now; we’ll get to that in a moment.) Leave about a 3″ opening in one of these seams – we’ll use this to turn the scarf later.
4. Now, take this tube of fabric to your ironing board and press both of these long seam allowances open. Wiggle the tube around as you need to so you can lay the seam flat and press it as shown. Do the same thing with both seams. (The reason we’re doing it this way is that it’s far easier to press the seam allowances open when you have the ends of the scarf still open, Nice, flat seams will really help us get beautiful, precise edges in our finished scarf.)
When you’re pressing around the opening you left in one of the seams, just press the fabric flat, following the seam line as shown.
5. Head back to the sewing machine now, and sew along those two short edges. Clip away the fabric at the four corners of the scarf as shown.
Press these seam allowances open by simply pressing them away from the seam on each side, as shown.
6. Now, carefully turn the whole thing right side out. Take a moment to gently push the corners out from the inside, but be careful – you don’t want to make a hole in your voile! Use a chopstick or the eraser end of a pencil or something equally dull.
7. With the scarf right side out, it’s time to press it flat. All that seam-allowance pressing you did in Step 4 should make this fairly easy, but even so, take your time with this step!
You want to end up with a nice, precise edge as shown here, where you can’t see any flannel peeking out from the edge of the voile and vice versa. Just make sure the fabric edges are lined up nicely before you press them with your iron.
8. Lastly, close up that opening in the side seam with a ladder stitch.
9. Now it’s time to add a little hand-quilting, which serves two purposes here: it bonds the two layers of fabric together, and it adds a subtle, pretty detail to the flannel side of your scarf. If hand-quilting seems like too much work to you, don’t worry! This video shows you some tricks for making it go faster. I promise, I was able to quilt this entire scarf in the span of a movie and a half!
Care Instructions:
Wash your finished scarf in cold water, delicate cycle, and either lay it flat or hang it up to dry.
About Our Guest Blogger
Diane Gilleland blogs, podcasts, publishes, teaches, and makes videos about all things crafty over at CraftyPod.com. When she’s not doing those things, she’s doing whatever her cat tells her to do. And what’s wrong with that?
very cool – love the hand quilting! adds such a nice touch.
Fun tutorial — Thanks for that Diane, and spoonflower!
^_^
Happy Crafting! – PinkSodaPop