Sunday, March 22, 2009

Making A Chenille Scarf




Attended another skills day our http://llqg.org had last Saturday on making a chenille scarf. It was so much fun, like a magic trick! It takes 2 yards of homespun fabric , the fabric has to have the weave the same on both sides. All the cutting is done on the bias in 6 inch strips and we cut 7 strips. They are stacked and the middle one (#4) is to be the stable strip. Then it is all pinned and I sewed from the middle on a chalk line (to determine the middle) about 3/8Th of a inch apart all the way across the 6 inches. It took 2 bobbins of matching thread to do this (Of which you cannot see anyway) and at least 30 minutes. Of course that sounds easy. The cutting took some time as our instructor helped us to learn the folding of the fabric. You need a brand new blade in your rotary cutter and it should be a large one. I used the 60. Then when the sewing is done comes the cutting of the rows and not to cut the middle layer is very,very important or you will have just long rope like strips, (like the fringe in the photo). So, you can use a chenille cutter or very sharp blunt tip small scissors. I used the Clover chenille cutter which worked well. I am showing you a leftover piece of the fabric to compare with the finished scarf. We started at 10 a.m. "worked" for a couple hours and then enjoyed a wonderful lunch of Beef Barley soup prepared by our skills day chairman that was accompanied by the rest of us bringing "go with" such as french bread, fresh shrimp and dipping sauce, several chocolate deserts,fresh strawberries and dipping cream!
Oh, yes, we know how to sew and eat well! After lunch it was back to the "sweatshop". By mid afternoon most of us were done and packed up to rush home to the washing machine to toss our scarfs in w/a couple pair of jeans I also added a sweatshirt. This is how the magic happens. When it comes out of the dryer, what a different look! I want to do this again!!!!

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