TUTORIAL: Summer Scarf

I know what you’re thinking…a scarf in the summer?

BUT, if you’re like me…..when the summer heat comes and the A/C is pumping…..if I’m inside a store, church, or movie theater for longer than an hour, I actually start to get cold.

Solution? Summer scarf. Made of soft cotton sear sucker or linen fabric, its girly and breezy.

This scarf is so light-weight you hardly notice it’s there (but they’ll notice your darling ruffles).
It’s the perfect accessory for a spring outing to the Poppy Festival. Or a pleasant summer evening walk along the beach.

And guess what? It’s truly one of the easiest things I’ve made. I know I tell you that a lot, but I’m not joking! Simple, simple. The largest margin of “time spent/to/cuteness” returns on my blog. That’s saying something, right?

We’ll even show you two methods for making the scarf (in case Elastic Thread doesn’t work in your sewing machine)

Let’s get started!

Fabric Choice:
Use a very light-weight cotton, sear sucker, knit or linen; fabrics that seem to “breathe” and will give your scarf a bounce. (If you use knit, you don’t need to do anything to the edges. Just leave them raw. Your project time just got cut in half!)

You need about a 1/2 yard of fabric for the measurements listed below.
My fabric was purchased on clearance at M&L Fabrics in Anaheim, Calif. It’s a very light-weight searsucker.

Cut strips of fabric so that you end up with one long strip that’s about 125 x 6 inches (318 x 15 cm). I cut out three long strips and sewed them together on the ends.

Serge all the way around the outside of your entire scarf, ends and sides. If you don’t have a serger or if you want a more polished look, you don’t need to serge. Instead, iron all the sides over about 1/4 or 1/2 an inch and then skip to the next step.

Iron over all the edges of your scarf about a 1/2 inch:

It should look something like this:

Sew this “hem” down, all the way around the scarf:

Here’s your scarf, ready to be ruffled:

To get the ruffle, we’re using Elastic Thread. Simple!

NOTE: IF THE ELASTIC THREAD is NOT gathering up on your scarf, a few things you can try:
* Spray your scarf with water and ironing. This usually does the trick.
* You may need to adjust your bobbin tension(esp if you have a BROTHER machine). * You can make a scarf without using Elastic Thread. See our Summer Scarf, Version 2 below.

You can Elastic Thread at most sewing stores in the notions area, or online (about $2). For very detailed info on sewing with Elastic Thread, please see our Summer Vacation Dress and Shortie Pattern. But this tutorial should tell you all you need to know for your scarf.

Okay, so wind the elastic thread around your bobbin. Not too tight, not too loose, just somewhere in the middle. And load it into your machine:

With normal thread on the top of your machine, you’re ready to gather. Start in the middle of your scarf (make sure you are sewing on the TOP of your scarf, the nicer looking part). Do a stay stitch (back and forth stitch at the beginning). And just start sewing down in a straight-ish line. Don’t worry about drawing a line on your scarf. Just eyeball it. It’s going to be all gathered up and ruffled when you’re done, so if you’re a little off, no one will know.

Watch the fabric gather up behind you. I love it every time!

Continue to the end and do another stay stitch.

Then, repeat this one more time, doing another line of elastic thread about 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch from the first line. Don’t worry if it’s not completely centered on your scarf.

And voila, you’re done!
You can add more or less lines if you’d like. Here are my observations after making 2 scarves :
* Why not just sew ONE line of Elastic Thread? I found that doing one line felt too weak, like it was going to snap. Two gave it more strength.
* I also tried it with multiple lines which spread further out on the scarf but it’s a totally different look. It won’t ruffle and twist as it does in the photos here. It will lay more flat and look like a shirred scarf.

Okay, tie it around your neck! (no special method here, just one simple tie, like you’re getting ready to tie shoelaces).

It should look like this on the front:

and this on the back:

with lots and lots of summer ruffles in between!

IF ELASTIC THREAD IS NOT WORKING IN YOUR MACHINE…..

In these steps, we’ll be gathering our scarf the old-fashioned way. By doing that, the only way for the gathers to stay in place is by adding a strip of fabric on the top, to secure the gathers, so that nothing moves. It gives the summer scarf a slightly different look, takes twice the time, and doesn’t seem quite as ruffly to me (but that also may be because my fabric wasn’t quite as light-weight and “bouncy” as the scarf above). BUT it’s still a darling and a great alternative if you can’t use Elastic Thread!

So here’s how it’s done…..

Prep your scarf just as you did in the steps above.

Cut a strip of fabric about 50 x 1 1/2 inches (127 x 4 cm). This is the strip that will hold your gathers in place. If you want it to blend-in, use the same fabric. If you want it to stand out, use a contrasting fabric. You could also use ribbon, bias tape, I’m sure you can think of more!

Iron the sides of your strip over on all sides, so that you have one long strip of fabric, about 1/2 inch (1 cm) wide. It will look sort of like store-bought Bias Tape when you’re done.

Now, start gathering. Do NOT do a stay stitch (a back and forth stitch at the beginning) and set your machine to the longest stitch. Sew a straight line all the way down the middle of the scarf. Just eyeball it. Doesn’t need to be perfect.

When you get to the end, do NOT do a stay stitch and leave the threads long at the end.

Sew another line about 1/4 or 1/2 inch next to the one before (remember not to Stay Stitch). Do NOT cross your lines (or as Egon says, Don’t cross the streams! ) If this happens, the gathering will not work.

Gathering is much easier to do if you’ve sewn two lines to pull from (rather than only sewing one). Three lines are even better. But two is fine for this project.

Okay, taking both the threads from the front (or both the threads from the back, but make sure you’re grabbing both threads from the same side), start pulling them and pushing the fabric down so that it gathers up.