Sunday, June 1, 2014

I am in a Scarf Rut!

Well, in all actuality, I am seriously involved in a cleaning spree and this came out of my cleaning. I have been going through every shelf and drawer in my apartment. I have been sorting, folding, and throwing things out.  In the back recesses of one of the shelves was a metal box. Inside I found a scarf I had started over 2 years ago. In the box were also the threads I had planned to use for making some tassels. Very pretty, whats not to like?
This weekend everything was taken with me on a long weekend trip. I usually get a lot done when the passenger of a car. I am one of those that can read or sew and not get car sick.

The inspiration for this scarf was from Cecil. Cecil is a German company that carries woman's clothing and accessories. Cecil carries some of the most interesting scarves I have ever seen. The one in particular that caught my eye was a light weight cotton with tassels.

As I recall, the light weight cotton fabric had a right and wrong side and was about 72 inches long by 12 inches wide. The way the scarf was modeled in the shop, the scarf was folded over so that it was only 6 inches wide with the fabric right sides together and then the scarf was folded again . The bottom edges of the scarf were finished and tassels hung at the bottom of the edge on the corners and in the middle of the hem at both ends. The cost of the scarf was in the range of 30 Euros ($38)

How hard could this be to make myself? Before it got packed away, the side edges were serged with a lightweight green blend Sulky polylite thread and the bottom edges were hemmed. 

One tassel was sewn on and not liking it (it was rather wimpy), the whole thing got put away in a box on the shelf. Something more fun to sew must have come up, although I do not remember now what that was.

This weekend I had the chance to start the tassels over. Long lost is the picture/drawing of the inspirational scarf.  I no longer had a notion that I was copying the original design. Instead, I now had free range to do as I wished. 

Now that it is finished, I must say it is not bad. 

The new and improved tassels are almost 2" long.

The length or the tassel came from using a needle packet width as the length of the tassel. My love of color really shows on these tassels. In the box were 7 spools of threads, all Sulky. Everything from the polylite 60 wt to solid and Blendable 12 wt thread was used. The spools were chosen from the way they matched the base fabric. To make the tassels substantial enough, but not too substantial, the 7 threads were wrapped around the width of the needle packet 7 times. The tassel was fashioned from there. The solid light green 12 wt thread was used for attaching all of the tassels to the scarf.

Ok, so here is the final result both folded and unfolded:

It is a keeper.