A New Scarf

I am told that the one item of clothing every french woman (and man) has is a scarf. Not only for the look it adds to an outfit, but for warmth as well. The weather here in my northern corner of France is warm days and cool nights. That means if you are off somewhere in the morning a sweater and a light scarf are nice. 

Remember the vintage but slightly damaged curtains I bought in Paris? 

If you look closely there is a nice edging lace down both sides of the curtain. Lots of it and in very good condition

BTW...This curtain does not look anything like the picture now, but while it is a work in progress, and there were some surprises, some of the edging was used to make a scarf using the linen bought in Paris.


So here was my starting point:

The fabric is called linen voile. It is a loose woven linen that can be stiff until washed a couple of times. I like it because it squishes down nicely and although it wrinkles, the wrinkles just add to the charm of what ever I make. The vintage doily was another find at the same second hand store as the curtains. It's arrival date was July 17th. 

Some buttons were pulled as I was thinking I might want to use them for ornamentation.

So here is the completed piece.

It turned out beautiful, but I don't like it. It looks great on me but does not work with the way I like to tie my scarves. I will need to google to see what other ways I can tie it. I wore it yesterday and it is stunning, just not me, or not yet me. If it does not decide to be mine, have no fear, I will find a home for it.

 I made a paper copy with a picture of the scarf to one side. I made notes about what I would do different next time. I have the length and the width of all pieces noted as well as how I attached the side edging. 

I have this type of doily in my stash many times over from living here for years. It is in storage, but if I do not find another doily like it here in France, I will pull one of them and play this coming winter.

To attach the edging, first I had to hand baste the edging onto the linen taking into account the grain line. There was about 2cm (1 inch) extra fabric so it was not basted right to the edge. The edging was flipped up and using my machine zigzagged  up to but not touching the under side of the edging on the linen. The edging was ironed down and another row of zigzag stitches were applied on top of the edging. The left over linen was then trimmed away. This is the hardest part any other type of hem does not work. 

No post can be complete without me finding another example of mauvais français (bad French) in fabric.

Now I am not an expert in this matter, but this one had me giggling so much that I bought it. It came from a department store in Germany and it was on sale. Maybe someone else did not like the use of French. It is an infinity scarf:

Frenglish! I love it! Now assuming you are trying to say Eiffel Tower of Paris, great that is English. To say it in French would be Tour Eiffel de Paris.

I got a nice comment from Quinn asking a question:

Quinn September 10, 2016 at 11:45 AM

What lovely treasures! And I must ask what you use to wash fabrics with, to remove that mold smell. Just yesterday I opened an old storage box and found vintage table linens and scraps of lace trimming that I would love to use again, but the mold smell is terribly strong. I don't know if airing outdoors will help, but first they must be washed anyway. Do you have a recommendation? Thanks, and welcome back to the blog-world :)

Quinn, Thanks you for you comment and yes, it is good to be back.

No airing will do nothing much for what you have. Mold is not going anywhere. I hate that! 

I am rather unorthodox in what I do and it is because I am going to use the items. If they can not stand up to washing then I can't sew with them. If it is length of lace, I tack it together before I wash it so that it does not become a tangled mess. Lace and small bits go in a lingerie bag. If it is table linen I don't do anything special for them before I wash them unless they have something that could get damaged. Those I place in a pillow case and I baste the top shut. 

Most likely what you have are sturdy linen or cotton items. Those I just toss in the washer. No bleach, regular soap that you use, warm wash, warm rinse and line dry. Linen sheets I put in the dryer just until they get hot so that the wrinkles work themselves out a bit.

Now I look over the items for stains. Biz is my stain remover of choice, oxiclean is a second choice. DO NOT place any item that you can tell has a two toned thread as both products will take the two tone look away leaving what you have flat looking. An example of that thread is the background to my blog. That particular thread was commonly used and it is two toned and Biz or oxiclean will ruin the two tone look.

 Two tones I soak in either laundry soap (like I am pre-soaking) I will leave this for days

If you have rust, good luck with that. I have found very little that takes rust out and the metal normally eats away the lace. I am trying some things now that I will let you know if they work.