10 Minuted Infinity Scarf {Tutorial}

Take 2 and...ACTION

So an hour and a half ago I sat down to write this little post on making a 10 Minute Infinity Scarf, cause Jeremy is home today and is playing with Greyson, and so I felt like I could have a little quite time to "create" a blog post. I made sure to be hitting "save" every so often so as not to loose my work, and guess what? The stupid thing didn't save!

I'm seriously so mad right now. 

I don't have the kind of extra time that allows me to type and re-type things just for the fun of it, cause Blogger didn't bother to SAVE MY DRAFT. 

I want to do this blog, really badly, I just don't want to waste my already limited time on it. 

So here follows a slightly less intense version of said 10 Minute Scarf, mostly cause I'm mad, and also cause I don't have another hour and a half to write the stupid thing all over again. 

Just keepin it real over here. 

Why This Little Scarf?

I love to create things. It calms me down, inspires me. But when I try to get too crazy and my unfinished projects take over my "craft corner" (aka the pile of papers and projects on my desk on the left side of my living room) and my kitchen table, I get overwhelmed and frustrated. So I needed something that could be made in the duration of one nap time to get my crafting wiggles out. 

Fabric from JoAnns: love me a pile of possibilities!!!!

So last week, JoAnnes was having a sale on their Simplicity Patterns: $2 a piece! Talk about a score! So of course I had to go, and I ended up bringing home some a pile of fabric as well. Since my husband isn't made of money, and I have yet to get a money tree growing on the patio (or anything growing on the patio, actually) I have decided to try my hand at making some of my own clothing for the fall, starting with some animal print infinity scarves. According to People Style, adding animal print in accessories, shoes, and bags is "in" and we all know I'm just a trend follower! (<--- Please note the sarcasm).

In case you didn't believe me: [People Style Fall 2013]

I don't have the money for all kinds of new shoes and bags, but for scarf material, I could swing it. I bought a 1/4 yard each of the cheetah and giraffe print fake-silk stuff, and it was like, $3.50 total. Below is a little tutorial on making the infinity scarf with the giraffe fabric, which from selvage to selvage was not long enough to wrap around my neck twice with just one seam, so I had to cut it in half lenghth-wise and sew both ends together into one long circle. That'll make more sense when you see the pictures.

10 Minute Infinity Scarf

Like I said above, I started by laying out the giraffe print and cutting it in half length-wise. I neither measured nor tried to make it a perfect half, I just eye-balled it and hopped it turned out decently. I did this for two reasons: 1. It is impossible to cut this material straight. In fact, the lady at the fabric store couldn't even do it, the edges were already kinda wonk-y. 2. I'm not taking the time to finish the edges on this project cause not only do I like it like that, I don't have the time to spend/i'm too lazy to do it :)

After I cut it in two, I pinned the selvage edges together, right sides touching. Note how the selvage edges are neither the same width, nor do the cut edges match ;)

I then sewed up both edges with a 1 inch seam. It's important to note the 1 inch seam, as it is necessary for the next step. Also, the seam doesn't have to be perfect, which is why this material is so great for these scarfs, cause it'll never be perfect no matter how hard you try.

Just keepin' it real: this is what my sewing station looks like "outside the crop". Delightful, isn't it?

Next, lay your scarf across an ironing board. (See how it makes one huge circle when it's sewn together?).

Here I still have the fabric wrong side up with the seam sticking straight up. Normally one would iron this seam open, but we don't want to do that here.

Instead, your going to take both pieces  of the seam and fold it in half so the edge touches the line of stitches you made ( kinda like making a rolled hem)....

And then you fold it down and pin it through all the layers of fabric so when you sew it the ends of the seam end up folded inside the new seam and are hidden. Clear as mud? Ok cool.

Hope this picture helps if the above explanation didn't make sense. I tend to use 100 words when 10 will do. Now sew along the edge of that fold. You can just put your pressure foot down on the edge or move your needle all the way to the right like I did.

When your done with both seams it's gonna look like this. A lot messy, but somewhat finished off :)

Snip those little threads that appear at the edges of your stitching lines, and press those babies down!

Since this is synthetic "silk" your gonna want your iron it on a really low setting so your fabric won't melt. You should prob also use a pressing cloth (a piece of old cotton you put between the iron and synthetic material which reduces the chance of your fabric melting) but I'm a rebel and don't usually use  one.

Aaaaaaand you're done! Lucky for you (and for me) I was wearing a shirt that actually kinda matched it ;) I wrapped it three times, and it's nice and loose but still looks full! 

The three scarves I made for the fall, the left one is cotton-y linen and really soft,
the other two are synthetic silk.

And there we have it, a little project you can have done in the corse of one nap-time! Plus, you'll feel infinitely more mommy-stylish with a little fall print going on in your next outfit :) 

With love,