Making scarves

I had only a little time to sew last weekend, and so I dusted off my serger and made scarves. I cut 4 strips lengthwise of that beautiful red silk dupioni I bought in Des Moines, seamed two pieces together with a French seam, then serged the long edges and frayed the short edges. I also embellished the short edge of each scarf with frayed-edge squares cut from my new Cherrywood hand-dyed cotton, above.

I cut up some of the Liberty of London prints I’ve been saving, too. I made a couple of scarves out of each piece of fabric, cut 16 inches by 72-80 inches (with a seam in the middle), above. Then I came up with a variation: the last 20 inches at one end of each scarf is a different fabric. This variation looked really good when doubled up and worn around the neck with the loose ends pulled through the loop. It gave the impression of two scarves because you could see both fabrics—one around the neck and one hanging through the loop. I also experimented with “crinkling” the Liberty prints, which are finer than the usual quilting cottons but not as thin as a cotton gauze. I wet the scarf, blotted it dry in a towel, then twisted it up, allowing it to dry like that. I got a compliment on my crinkled scarf when I wore it Monday, a sign of success!

Coming up for Feltsey: Road trip to the family farm in Altamont, Illinois. My sister and I plan to search a few cemeteries for ancestors’ gravestones. (All the women were accomplished quilters, of course. Well, my own grandmother certainly was, anyway, and she got it from somewhere.) Looks like there are quilt shops in Shelbyville and Effingham. I make miniature Amish quilts for gifts, and I need to find some dark Amish colors. Shelbyville may be the place ….