Super Scarf

New day and a new project. I love sewing! Quilts aren't usually wrapped up in a few days but when I'm sewing clothes, it is a short time commitment. Quick satisfaction!

I sent my son in Japan a hand knit scarf and hat, plus a fleece scarf as part of his Christmas. He loved the hand knit scarf as the homespun yarn was super soft. The drawback - his beard snagged it and started cutting the fibers. Argh! 

He asked for a new fleece scarf and oh by the way, please make it a foot or two longer please Mom. I got a thick neck. A foot or two longer? The last one was a good 7 feet long. But whatever babe, Momma will make you a super long scarf.

I bought 1 1/4 yards of thick gray fleece. My thoughts were to cut it from selvage to selvage making 3 strips, then join the strips. That would make it almost 10 feet long. Upon closer inspection and with enough thinking that my head hurt, I decided to remeasure the fabric. I had a 1 1/2 yards! My receipt backed that up. Oh well, a miscommunication might come in handy today. 

I still cut selvage to selvage but cut 4 strips. I joined 2 long strips together with simple sewn lines running the almost 60" length of the strip. Then I laid the strips at a right angle, overlapped at the end.

It's hard to see the quilting lines but they are there on the horizontal piece. You can see the angled line drawn. That is my seam guide. I can zip across small pieces by eyeballing it but not these huge scarf pieces. They are about 17 across. I lose length joining this way but since I would start with (3) 60" pieces, I had enough to spare. 

Because I can't stand to waste fabric, I sewed a second line parallel to the first seam line, then cut in between. This gave me a lovely soft square with a triangle of single thickness and a triangle of the quilted double thickness leftover from the scarf pieces. I'm thinking maybe a smallish pillow? 

I repeated the right angle joining of the third piece, leaving the quilted section in the middle of the scarf. My hope is that if his beard starts to cut through it, the double thickness, folded over to make 4 actual layers will survive his whiskers. Once I had this massively long piece, I folded it over, right sides together and stitched the length. Turned it inside out and voila! A new scarf long enough to swaddle a python. I did a little decorative leaf stitch across the ends to close them. Simple and quick! It was a happy day sewing :)