Wrapping Infinity Around Your Neck - Take Two

I have had a chance to make a few more infinity scarves, and I have discovered a way to sew it so that the seams are completely hidden.

Plus, I think it's easier and quicker this way. And, seriously, when I can make an infinity scarf, from start to finish, in less than an hour? That must be a good thing!

So, I'll just start from the beginning and repeat some of the previous post, but that's okay. You can go back and read the history if you want, but, basically, I wanted to make an Infinity Scarf with Anna Maria Horner's lahverly voiles, and couldn't find a tutorial that was a true Infinity ∞ Scarf. So I wrote one. :)

Materials:
1/4 yard of two coordinating fabrics, any material you like, really. If you want to have a solid scarf, then just use 1/2 yard cut.
*Note: the voiles happen to be 54" wide, so if you use something else, you will need to compensate for that! Which I think is just one more reason to use voiles!
A ton of pins
Thread
Hot Iron

Steps:

1. Trim your voiles (I'm going to speak of voiles here because that's what I used and you should, too) so that they are identical in size and the edges are straight. It can be 9" wide, or 9 3/8" wide, or 8 7/16" wide, it doesn't matter. Just straight and identical.
2. Put right sides together and pin, pin, pin. It can be tough to find the right sides with voiles, but I found it doesn't really matter. These are slippery, so pinning now will make your sewing life SO much easier!
3. Stitch (3/8"-ish seam) almost all the way around, but leave a 3-4" gap on one of the long sides near a short side. Clip the excess fabric at the corners, but not the stitches! :)
4. Reach into the tube and reach all the way to the opposite short end. Grab it and pull it up to the near short end. You will need to give it a slight twist so that the white fabric from one short end touches the green from the other short end. (This is SO hard to explain!!).  In the picture below, you can see the inside, and how I've twisted it so that the white will actually touch the green.
   
   
   
   
   You'll need to poke out the corners so they're as pointy and square as possible. Now, stuff the inside short end into the corners of the outside short end and pin. (in the picture above, they are stuffed together already.)
   
   If you look closely, you can see through the voile and see that the next layer behind the green is the white print.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Sew a second seam to attach those two short sides together.
 


6.  Pull the right side of the tube out through your gap, and straighten it as much as possible. You should be able to see your seam where the white fabric is stitched to the green, and on the reverse, the green is attached to the white. (Gosh. Maybe I need to try to do a video of this?) You can see the gap in the upper left-hand corner of this picture, and you can see my hidden seam. Well...you can't see my hidden seam, really. :)




7. Anyway, I took out my Best Press and pressed the seams all the way around. I just like to do that because it looks SO crisp! Plus, if it's for a gift, the Best Press gives it a nice fragrance.
   
8. Hand-stitch your 3-4" gap closed, and admire your work!
   

Now. You can wear it as one long loop,

 

Or as a double loop close to your neck. 

To make the double loop, put the scarf over your neck as one long loop, then pull the bottom and twist it once close to your neck. Now take that opening at the bottom, and put it over your head. Once both loops are around your neck, you can adjust as you need to.

Again, if you make this, let me know how it goes! :) And don't hesitate to ask if you have ANY questions.

Wrapping Infinity Around Your Neck

I love it when a plan comes together, don't you?

A few weeks ago, Traci posted a picture of herself wearing a new Infinity Scarf that she had made. I immediately wanted one. Except I wanted to use voiles. I don't believe I'd ever actually gotten my mitts on any of the voiles, but I knew people said they were just LAHVERLY.

Then earlier this week, a quilty friend from out of town emailed me and said she was alluvasudden gonna be in town, and asked if I wanted to go fabric shopping one evening.

Did I?!  There's a fabric shop in Denver called Fancy Tiger that I've been wanting to go to a few years, and since her local quilt shop is Joann's (bleck!), we decided to strap in the girlies and go to Fancy Tiger!

I knew that the only thing I really wanted was to see what voiles they had. I admit that I purchased a few other pieces, but that's beside the point. :o) At one point my friend looked over and saw a SALE table. (play "Hallelujah Chorus" here). The first thing I found was the lovely Anna Maria Horner Little Folks Kiwi solid voile. It's such a beautiful, fun, bright, springy color. And the feeling of the voile is just dreamy. It's delicate and flowy and drapey and rich and silky. I knew I needed some of that regardless of whether or not I found anything else!  But then I found the equally lovely AMH LF Four Square Sweet voile. I wasn't sure how they went together, but I set them on the table, and stepped away. From a distance, they looked really good together, so I, not knowing anything about making an Infinity Scarf, asked for 1/4 yard of each. My friend decided she wanted to get 1/2 yard of each. Sweet!

After we got home and I put the girls to bed, I spent an inordinate amount of time on the web searching for patterns. Cart before the horse, anyone?  I didn't find a single one that I liked. Anna Maria Horner even has a tutorial on her blog, but she used 1/2 yard cuts - one of her Innocent Crush velveteen and one of a voile, and she didn't say how much of each fabric to use, so I couldn't really use her tutorial. I was a bit nervous that 1/4 yard wouldn't be enough, but I decided to give it a shot. It's a scarf, for Pete's sake, right?!  :o)

So, since I couldn't find a tutorial I liked for me, here's one for you.

Materials:
1/4 yard of two coordinating fabrics, any material you like, really. If you want to have a solid scarf, then just use 1/2 yard cut.
*Note: the voiles happen to be 54" wide, so if you use something else, you will need to compensate for that! Which I think is just one more reason to use voiles!
A ton of pins
Thread
Hot Iron

Steps:

(1) Trim your voiles (I'm going to speak of voiles here because that's what I used and you should, too) so that they are identical in size and the edges are straight. It can be 9" wide, or 9 3/8" wide, or 8 7/16" wide, it doesn't matter. Just straight and identical.

(2) Put right sides together and pin, pin, pin. It can be tough to find the right sides with voiles, but I found it doesn't really matter. These are slippery, so pinning now will make your sewing life SO much easier!

(3)Next you want to sew along the long edges only. I used a 3/8" seam allowance because I've never sewn with voile before, and I read that it's smart to use a little wider seam allowance. (Note: I added some notes at the bottom about how I learned a different way. I think it's actually easier. And much tidier!)

(4) Now you have an inside-out tube. I pressed the seams flat to set them, then I turned it so that the right sides were out, and the seams were hidden.

(5) Then, because the tube was a bit puffy, I decided to iron the sides so the scarf tube was flat. I don't know if you have to do that or not, but I did.

(6) Now to take the scarf to infinity ∞. Some people call this a "circle scarf," but I'm a nerd, and I wanted mine to be a true infinity symbol where there is no beginning, and no end, and there is a twist. Either way, you now have to put your two short sides together and sew them. I don't know much about sewing, but I know I'm not very good at it, so I have to take extra steps to make the final product look right. You might not have to do this next step.

In preparation of joining the short sides, I ironed down a 1/4" fold on one of the short sides.

(7) Next I took the other short end and put it about 1/4" inside the folds. In keeping with the desire for this to be a true infinity ∞ scarf, I twisted my scarf tube one time so that the intersection would have the solid on one side, and the print on the other. Then I pinned it.

(8) Anna Maria says you should hand stitch this intersection using a blind stitch. I chose to machine sew that intersection for a couple of reasons. (a) I forgot that she said to hand stitch it. (b) I don't think it's necessary since I used 2 voiles, and she used a velveteen and a voile. I did use a matching thread for the green, though. :o) I don't think the hand sewing vs machine sewing really matters in the end. I'm sure it would look more professional and more finished and less like a 9 year old did it, but I've been wearing this scarf all day, and it hasn't bothered me one bit!

And you are FINISHED! What did that take you, about an hour? If that? With a cookie break?

You can wear it a few ways, either one long loop.


Or two short loops.

I like it this way because it keeps my neck nice and toasty warm.

(ETA: To accomplish the double loop, I first put it on long, as one loop, then I grab the bottom, twist it once close to my neck, and then take the larger loop in my hands and put that over my head. Once both loops are on my neck, I can finagle them to be comfy.)


You could also have one long loop and one short. I don't have a picture of that, but you've got a vivid imagination, right?

(ETA also: I discovered another way to make it so that the seams are actually hidden or sealed. It's just a bit hard to explain, so if you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask!)  

Here goes: (picking up after Step 2 above)
Step 3. Pin right sides together. Stitch (3/8"-ish seam) almost all the way around, but leave a 3-4" gap on one of the long sides near a short side. Clip the excess fabric at the corners, but not the stitches! :)

Step 4. Reach into the tube and reach all the way to the opposite short end. Grab it and pull it up to the near short end. You will need to give it a slight twist so that the white fabric from one short end touches the green from the other short end. (This is SO hard to explain!!).  You'll need to press out the corners so they're as pointy and square as possible. Now, stuff the inside short end into the corners of the outside short end and pin. Sew a second seam to attach those two short sides together. 

Step 5. Pull the right side of the tube out through your gap, and straighten it as much as possible. You should be able to see your seam where the white fabric is stitched to the green, and on the reverse, the green is attached to the white. (Gosh. Maybe I need to try to do a video of this?)  Anyway, I took out my Best Press and pressed the seams all the way around. I just like to do that because it looks SO crisp!
Step 6. Hand-stitch your 3-4" gap closed, and admire your work!

If you make this, let me know how it goes!

Portholing for Natalie

In November, Natalie sent the Bee Happy Bee members a few Kona solids and asked us to make blocks with portholes using a technique by Ric-Rac.  I'll admit that I was super intimidated! First, Natalie is incredibly talented and meticulous and brilliant and creative and unafraid and I could go on and on about her, but my point is that I didn't want to create crappy blocks for her. You know, the ones that get put on the back of the quilt? Or on a pillow...in the closet? Yeah, I was afraid of that. Second, I've never piece circles before. I've seen the Dale Fleming "6-Minute Circle" technique done (although it took more than 6 minutes...), and I just thought it was too many steps, and I would surely screw it up.

So I hopped on the "I'm Moving" excuse bus, and put the fabric aside. :o)

Now it's January, and I've completed other sewing projects, so I really had no excuse anymore. Plus, I didn't want to make her wait too terribly long for her blocks! As I've done with the other months, I decided to create a sample block to work out any kinks before I cut into her fabrics.  So I got a block of Kona White, and was going through my hexagons from my Hexagon Swap, looking for a fun, bright fabric for the circle. I found a piece of Laurie Wisbrun's fabulous Tufted Tweets, and had a brilliant idea...why did I need to make a circle? Janice had used the technique to piece a square...could I piece a hexagon? It was just a sample block, and if it went haywire, I would just give it to Mookie for her "sewing" collection. :o) 

Let me just tell you, when I was making this block, I felt like a rock star! I was on top of the world! I totally hated having just moved because I would have been running up the street to Kelly to show this to her right then and there! But, alas, I could only email her about my fantabulous new creation.



I'm pretty sure I said something to the effect of "I am the bomb!" as I was finishing this up. SO proud of myself! Not only had I conquered my fear of piecing something and it not looking wretched, I actually stepped it up and tried something that hadn't been done before and it looks great! It's not perfect, but I totally love it!

AND...when I posted it on Flickr!, the real deal, Ms Laurie Wisbrun herself, left me a comment! Woot woot!

I went on to my actual project, drafting a few ideas of circles in the block, and I started with this one.  She gave us Kona Charcoal, Celadon, and (ooh, let me go consult my color card...) and Teal.
I went back to the top of Ric-Rac's tutorial, got a Christmas candy tin to trace my first circle, and got about the business of teaching my grandmother to suck a few eggs...as Ms Ric-Rac has deemed her technique. :o)



Natalie asked that our thread be kinda sketchy, which I will admit was hard for symmetrical me. You can see on the first circle (on the left) that I didn't do that. Then I decided to close my eyes and try. :o)  I love being encouraged and allowed to be imperfect! Thanks, Natalie! I changed up my topstitch thread color as I went along, and by the third circle, I wanted to use opposite colors as accents.

Here's a mosaic of all the blocks together. Pretty cool!

(links to all the blocks:
1. Lori's Block #1 for me for Bee Happy, 2. Lori's Block #2 for me for Bee Happy, 3. Bee Happy November Sample Block, 4. Bee happy porthole for Natalie 1/2, 5. Bee happy porthole for Natalie 2/2, 6. Natalie's Block, 7. Bee Happy: November, 8. Block one from Leslie--Bee Happy, 9. Block Two from Leslie--Bee Happy, 10. Porthole block, 11. bee block 2 for Natalie, 12. bee block 1 for Natalie, 13. Natalie's Bee Happy Bee block #1

Natalie did mention that it helped to pin the heck out of your final circle (when putting the green on the bottom of the gray). That helped. And for my hexagon, I had to clip the corners so it would turn right, as opposed to clipping the curves if you're piecing a circle. I suppose Janice had to clip the corners of her square, too.

I am currently working on her second block, but I felt like blogging, and as it's been 4 blue moons since I blogged, I figured I better go with the feeling! I'll post pictures of my second block when I'm finished.



Oh, but first, I want to encourage you to try this technique. It's not only for making quilt blocks. It's for making anything where you want to have a sewn circle. For instance, if you're going to make a pair of trousers for your little boy's Mickey Mouse doll and need a hole for the tail...here you go! Again, it can be used for any shape. Go for it!

Single Girl and a Baby

Miss Pee-Pie let me sew for OVER an HOUR the other day. Can you believe it? I can't!! She was totally content to just sit up and chew on the package of D-rings, rattle them around, drop them, cry for me to give them back to her, then chew on them some more...

(She's getting SO big! And just really becoming so much fun.She'll be 8 months old on Monday - I can't believe it either!)

I was working on piecing curves for Denyse Schmidt's Single Girl quilt pattern. My Bee Happy Bee friend, Rosanna, asked us each to piece one block for her. She did all the arduous cutting of the zillion pieces, and just asked us to piece it for her. Good golly, it's a good thing I didn't have to cut them! I would have given up at about piece number 35, but she's going to have an amazing quilt when we're all finished. :o)

Here's Sprout and one of the rings of my block:


And here's a picture of the package of D-rings:


I'm not entirely sure what happened to that corner, but I have a sneaking suspicion I'll be seeing it in a few days...

And I'm going to do something I don't think I've done before. I'm going to link to a few giveaways. Both are giving away some coveted Heather Ross fabrics, and both are fairly new blogs, and both are super talented quilters, so you should hop on over and paruse their little corner of the blogosphere.
(1) Fussycut: http://fussycut.blogspot.com/2011/01/heather-ross-giveaway.html
(2) Jednoiglec: She's in Poland, but she translates her blog posts for us, thank goodness! http://jednoiglec.blogspot.com/2011/01/giveaway-100-posts-100-followers-100-b.html
Here is my absolute favorite thing of hers.

 It's a pillow with rainbow stripes and she put some hexagons on it, and if you look, she straight-line quilted each line with thread the color of that rainbow stripe! Sheer genius.

Good luck winning some of that HR fabric! And good luck getting some sewing done! I'm going to try to do some more of that right about now.

What Can I Say?

November and December were a blur. An absolute blur! And January is kinda shaping up to be the same way!

I can't give this post and this blog any time right now -- my must-do list is TOO long, but I did want to give a short recap of what's been going on, and what's been keeping me from blogging, these last few months.

First up...um...well, we moved. To a new house. From California to Colorado. And, MAN, what a "state" we live in! It's a wreck! Beautiful new house, s.t.u.f.f. everywhere. Still! It's not as bad as it could be, but MAN, what a state.  That was November. All about the move.

Oh, and I, like a goober, decided to participate in the popular Flickr Scrappy Mug Rug Swap. Right in the middle of the move. My mug rug wasn't finished, yet, and the movers were loading my sewing machine onto the truck! Here's a picture of it before I chose the binding fabric.


And I was supposed to mail it a few days after they delivered our goods! And not too long after I took that picture, I decided I didn't like it, and changed my mind! (What mind, you ask? I don't have one, apparently!) Completely. Sewing machine packed in the midst of 200+ boxes on a truck? Sure, now's the PERFECT time to start a new project! Hah! But the design I picked was one I could do entirely by hand, and other than using my machine to attach the binding to the front, the project was done entirely by hand. Here's the finished mug rug:


I got a fantabulous mug rug in return from Sarah at Stash Resolution:   Can you believe that double dresden plate! I'm SO lucky! :o)

So, where was I? Oh, right. I was explaining why I haven't blogged in over two months! Here's a quick recap. I said goodbye to my LA MQG family, the movers came, they took all our stuff, the girls and I flew to Colorado while Dave drove the cat and the car, we closed on our house, the movers showed up the next day to deliver a zillion pounds worth of household goods, we had to go to a satellite launch party that night(*1), we spent the next few days unpacking and unpacking and unpacking, it was Thanksgiving, we unpacked some more, Dave officially started back to work, the unpacking came to a screeching halt, I started the Front Range Modern Quilt Guild, we had parties to go to, I sent a little gift to my friend, Melissa P, in LA since we didn't get to participate in the LAMQG Holiday Swap(*2), I FINALLY finished my LAMQG mini-quilt for Kelly's (June) birthday (*3), we flew to Michigan for Dave's grandmother's 100th birthday (*4) and Christmas, we went for a sled-dog ride (*5), we hung out with wonderful family, we came back to ARCTIC weather in Colorado, we exchanged our presents here (I got a new laptop, hazzah!), Dave went back to work, I'm failing at getting Sprout to eat solids, and, basically, nothing is getting done around here.

(*1)Dave works with undergraduate engineering students that design, build and launch satellites, and that night was the successful launch of another satellite. That, my friends, is a pretty big deal! Undergrads. Building satellites. Launching satellites. Successfully flying overhead. What were you doing at age 22?

(*2) Here is a picture of what I sent to Melissa:
and here's a shot of the back (by the way, I did give him some arms!) And I love the snowflake stitching on the back, too! I had to do something to cover up the fact that I still haven't found my thread and I didn't like one row of plain, white stitches, so I covered it up with snowflakes! :o) I'm gonna have to do more of that in the future.

and here's one other thing I sent to her: a hexie needle book (tutorial here)


(*3) Did I ever tell you about this project? Probably not. Well, the quick and the dirty is this: Kelly is a military wife, and the Air Force will be calling her husband to a new duty station soon, and I knew she was loving her time in the LA MQG, so I decided to make her a collaborative/commemorative mini-quilt. I asked the members to sign their names on strips of fabric, which I then embroidered over in contrasting colors. I then sewed them all together in a stacked-books design. I took inspiration from Jane's LAMQG logo to make the banner at the top of Kelly's quilt, and then stitched it all together. I was (for once!) bright enough to copy the signatures so I can (eventually!) make one for myself! I really really really RILLY big puffy heart love how this turned out.

Here's the top:

(*4) Yes, Grandma R turned 100 years old. I found my mind wandering to what it was like to have a newborn a century ago. Wow. She is one AMAZING woman. In every sense of the word. She is a blessing to everyone who knows her. :o)

Whenever she would hold Sprout, she would talk about "the beginning and the end", and "bookends."  I'm definitely glad to be a part of the legacy that this lady has created. :o)  

(*5) Dave's aunt and uncle live in Alaska and Michigan, and take their sled dogs with them wherever they are living. His uncle ran the Iditarod, even! Cool, eh? So, anyways, here's an action shot of Mookie and me on the sled:

There. Now you have it. Hopefully, I will be better about crafting AND blogging in 2011!! :o) I hope you have a great year!