Recycle Your Sweatshirts into a Warm and Snuggly Scarf…

I finally did it! I finally brought out all the boxes of Courtney and Kelsie's old t-shirts and sweatshirts that I have been saving for years. I tackled the sweatshirt pile first, because there were way more t-shirts to go through. I'll save those for another day.

The sweatshirts are mostly from middle school through college and not that many from college, because they are still wearing those!  At first, I thought I was going to make each of them a blanket out of the sweatshirts, but then I realized I didn't have enough squares with designs on them. I could have alternated with a blank square cut from the plain back, but I wanted all designs.

I did have enough to make a scarf for each of them though.  As time goes by and more sweatshirts are thrown in the "saving box",  I can always make them a blanket in the future.

Here's the scarf I made…

With Kelsie working in Disney World and Courtney in her own apartment, I lost my models to show you what this would look like on someone. Coat hanger it is. I miss my girls : (

This project was so easy and required only straight stitches, so it's great for anyone just learning to sew.

Easy Upcycled Scarf...From a Shirt!!

I went through a bag of hand me down clothes from my sister and niece...found this shirt that didn't quite fit and looked really bad on me!!

I did like the animal print though, but not the style of the shirt.

I also noticed the bottom portion of the scarf...hmmm, the edges are already finished!

and it's just sewn onto the bodice with one line of stitching.

Get out your seam ripper ladies!!

Here's a ripping tip...hold the fabric coming off with your index and middle fingers and the bottom part with your ring finger and thumb, pulling and spreading apart as you go. This helps to "show" the little stitches as you rip them.

One scarf all finished with only seam ripping involved.

Here it is just draped over...

or in a loose knot!

When you are going through your clothes to give to charity or your are thrift store shopping look for things that can be transformed into something else.

You might not like the style of something any more, put the print and fabric are still cute.

Happy ripping,
~Karen~

30 Second No Sew Infinity Scarf...For a $1.50

You read it correctly...30 seconds and $1.50 each. What's the secret? Ribbed Knitting.

I love ribbed knitting for a number of reasons...

• polyester...washes well
• cut edges won't fray
• cuts easily
• sews easily
• did I say cut edges won't fray...that's my favorite. No hemming! YAY

Here's the finished infinity scarf...had to take the shot several times. Why? Tile floor plus yellow Labrador dog plus black fabric...not good. Lol

This is one yard of ribbed knit. Regular price at Joanne's Fabric $9.99. I had 40% off coupon, so it went down to $6.00 per yard.

The secret to ribbed knit is it's tubular (not tubular like yay man let's go catch a wave, tubular)...it's in a circle, with no selvage edge.

I cut each scarf at 9 inches wide...totally up to you on how wide you want them. I used the grout line on the tile floor for a guide line too.

Cuts easily in seconds.

Four scarves in 30 seconds

 Love it!!

Twisted twice around the neck.

This shot took many, many times. I really needed someone to take it for me, but just me on this one. Too many shots of wrinkled chicken neck, hair I hadn't washed yet, shots too low...no bra on! You know all those early morning things!!

 Here it is long, not twisted.

It really is the easiest scarf to make. Perfect for gifts too.

You could probably make one of these on your way out the door to the party!!

Have fun with the no sew,

~Karen~

The Nester Club...Miscellaneous Tips and Tricks

My nest was full for a little bit this weekend. If you want to join the The Nester Club, click here to read the first post. You can also click here to read all the posts for The Nester Club...so many great comments too. You might find some one in your same "nester" situation!

It is a long holiday weekend here in the states, so both our daughters, Courtney and Kelsie, came home for a few days. Love them to pieces and love it when they're here. They left last night, so the nest is empty again, but we did a lot in a few short days. We had a big dinner at home, stayed up late watching tv, sewed, colored hair, went out to dinner etc...

One project we did was make the girls new scarves...I found fabulous silky fabric at Walmart for $1.50 a yard. It's great!!

Here's the TIP...use your tile floor for

• squaring up fabric
• measuring

Here's the fabric laid out on the tile floor (Annie the dog helped). See the "cut" edge from the store? Nice and straight huh? Lol !!

Line up your selvage edge (the finished edge of the fabric) on the horizontal grout line of the tile...

Here is Kelsie, my trusty assistant, pointing to the vertical line.

Use the vertical grout line to cut a straight line.

Here it is all cut away and straight!!

Now to measure.

I roughly needed 2 yards per scarf. Each tile on my floor is a little less than 12 inches...plus the grout. Just count over 6 tiles for 6 feet or 2 yards!!

See Kelsie cutting way down there to the right using the grout line again?

Just sew a hem on the 2 cut ends and you're done...INSTANT scarf! I left the selvage edge alone, because it's already finished.

Here is Courtney modeling the scarf. Kelsie wasn't "picture" ready yet!!

Courtney said...please don't take a picture of my face...

Sorry, couldn't resist...too pretty!

Here is some extra Nesting Club FYI...

Courtney had a gift certificate to the Red Door Salon. She wanted to color her hair red! Her hair is brown, but auburn hair is in our family, so it wasn't a scary step.

This was the best picture showing the red...isn't it pretty? The shadows are blocking the full red though.

$90.00!!! It was $75.00 to color it and they automatically add in the tip! Thank God for gift certificates or she would have NEVER done it.

Here is Kelsie's hair we colored this weekend. She wanted to color over old blond highlights she had done at a salon a long time ago. She wanted her natural dark hair back...

Here's the before with older high lights..

Here's the "after". Looks good huh?...$7.00 from a box!! Beautiful! Next time we need a front picture too.

Here's the box...only took 10 minutes!

Medium Brown #21...

What happened in your Nest this weekend?

Have a great day,
~Karen~

Make A Gift On The 25th Club...Scarf Tutorial

Happy Christmas in July!! A little while ago I did a post explaining the "Make a Gift on the 25th Club". Click HERE to read all about it. In short, for the next five month on the 25th day of each month, anyone who joins the club will make a gift for someone on your Christmas list.

If you have a blog, you can post about it, but the person you're making the gift for might see it, so at some point during the week of the 25th, I will have a linking party so you can share your picture of the gift you are making. A linking party is the same as my Sew Darn Crafty party I have on Sundays...great inspiration.  

I know there are a lot of proCRAFTinators out there like me who wait until the last minute to make gifts, this club will help put that habit to an end.

Join the club, put this button on your blog as a reminder and just have fun in the process. I know timing is everything, so if you can't do it exactly on the 25th...we're giving ourselves the week of the 25th. Try to get it done and put it away. We all have those UFOs hiding in the closet...a UFO is an Un Finished Object. Maybe on the 25th we can finish some of those!!

Put on some Christmas music, get out your sewing machine, glue gun, beads, bobbles and patterns...WE'RE MAKING SOME GIFTS!!

To help you get started, here is a tutorial for an endless scarf. I shared this pattern for a guest post I did on Stash Manicure. This is made of cotton, but any fabric would work...fashion fabric would be more flowey.

I'm Guest Posting...

Madame Samm at Sew We Quilt @ Stash Manicure invited me to guest post today! I would love it if you could hop over for a visit. I have tips for organizing your stash and a tutorial for an endless scarf...quick, easy and uses one yard of fabric. Great to start making those gifts for...dare I say...Christmas!

Stash Manicure is a great site filled with guest bloggers and wonderful ideas from Madame Samm, so have fun roaming around!

Here's the link to the Stash Manicure blog...click here

Here's the link directly to my post...click here

Have a great day,
~Karen~

Super Fast Last Minute Gift Idea...No Sew Scarf !!

This Christmas gift is so fast to make, but you need to live near a fabric store to buy the furry fabric. I've made these scarves for 2-3 years now, but didn't make them this year or I would have shared this idea earlier. Even if you can't make them this year, buy the fabric when it goes on sale and make them for next year.
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Here's my daughter modeling the black scarf...


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and here's the brown one.
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The fabric comes in so many colors...

You can find it in the fleece section. It is unbelievably soft, silky, furry and so warm around your neck.

You can make them any width. The black is 5 inches wide and the brown is 7 inches wide. The size is all up to you.

I didn't have any full yardage left to lay out and show you the steps, but its very easy to do...ALL YOU DO IS RIP IT AND IT"S DONE!!

• I bought the silky furry fleece at Joann's in the fleece department. (It looks like Elmo fur,but in different colors!)
• You can get it on sale sometimes for $7-$8 per yard
• Buy the yardage you need, but buy extra to clean up the edge of the fabric before you rip it...yes, rip it!!
• Completely unfold fabric and lay it out so one selvage edge is close to you and the other is at the other end. The wrong side is up.
• To clean or straighten the left edge of the fabric, make a snip through the selvage (or finished edge) about 2" over and then RIP IT! Just pull both pieces of the snipped fabric and it will tear clean up to the other selvage edge. You might have to cut that last bit with scissors.
• Now you have a clean straight edge, determine the width of you scarf (5"-6" wide), snip the selvage edge and rip, rip rip. Do it fast!
• The fur will be flying, so you might want to do this outside or in the basement. You'll be swearing at me for this messy part, but it's worth it!
• Because this is a version of fleece, the ripped edges don't fray and the selvage edges are already finished.

So what it comes down to is this...

• Just snip, rip, shake the excess fur and you are done!!

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The picture below shows the selvage edges of the black and the brown scarves. The left and right sides where it was ripped automatically rolls itself to finish it.
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I'm showing you this piece of red furry fabric to show you what went wrong last year with this fabric. Hopefully you can look out for this when you are shopping for the fabric. This is the piece I had left.

Very pretty in person...great for Christmas!

but here's where it went wrong...the person who cuts the fabric, cut it crooked or the straight of grain was woven crooked. Can you see how the lines start to go off to the left from the selvage edge on the bottom?

When I started to cut the 6 inch wide scarf on the right, see the woven lines to the left...they are running almost diagonal. When you snip and then start to rip, it will follow that diagonal line. Now your scarf will be 6 inches on one end and about 2 inches on the other!!! I'm laughing at the thought of that now, but when I was making 40 of these the night before my ladies party...it wasn't so funny. I had a few choice words for Elmo when I was cutting this red fabric, LOL

Here's another picture of the crooked fabric and what not to buy.

This is how I packaged each scarf for gifts the past 2 years. Add a little bell or ornament to the bow and it's all set.

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If you get the fabric on sale and you cut the scarves at about 5-6 inches wide, you can get about 6 scarves out of 1 yard of fabric (don't forget to buy extra for ripping though). I just saw the red furry fabric on sale on the Joann website for $7.50, so that's only $1.25 per scarf!!

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Now that's one great gift.

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Hope you have time to run out and try this...maybe this will help if you need a quick last minute gift. They would be great gifts for:

• teachers
• babysitters
• dog walkers
• kid's school friends
• guild members
• tutors
• music teachers
• grandmas, aunts, sisters...
• you name it, the list is endless

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We will be celebrating my husband's side of the family tomorrow, Kelsie's birthday is on the 24th and my sister is having dinner on Christmas, so we will be busy much like all of you.
I want to take this time to wish all of my special blogging friends from all over the world a wonderful holiday and a very Merry Christmas. May your day be blessed with love, family, friends and good health.
Merry Christmas!
Love, Karen