Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Scrappy Chenille Scarf


One of the participants from my scarf-making challenge made a chenille scarf that I really liked.  Her name is Linda and she wrote a great tutorial for her scarf that you can find HERE.  


Linda's scarf is made up of 7 layers of fabric.  The center layer of fabric is never cut and serves as a background color (black, in Linda's case)  for both sides of the scarf.  After I got 6 pieces of fabric cut, I thought my scarf was already looking very thick.  It's hard to tie and twist a really thick scarf, so I figured out a slightly different method to cut the scarf using only 6 layers of fabric.  
This is a diagram of a cross section of my scarf.
The center layers are grey flannel.
The white vertical lines show the stitching which goes through all 6 layers of fabric.
The black vertical lines show where I cut through 2 and sometimes 3 layers of fabric.
This is how I got away with using an even number of fabric layers.
The center layers were grey flannel.  The outer most layers were a blue/violet tie-dye pattern.
The top photo shows the royal purple I used under the tie-dye on one side.
The bottom photo shows the bright blue I used on the other side.
The sides are different, but the difference is very subtle.
Next time I try this I'm going to make the 2 sides much more different.



As you might be able to guess, I spent almost as much time taking photos of the scarf as I did making it!  I'm trying really hard to learn the manual settings on my camera.  I took a few photography courses in college, but those were years ago and we used real film.  I remember just knowing which adjustments to make to change the focal length and shutterspeed to use to get the photo I wanted.  Now it's a lot of hit and miss, referring back to my manual a million times, and head-scratching.  My biggest trouble now is with focusing.  Maybe my up-close vision is deteriorating as I approach 40.....?  I can't see well enough through my little camera view finder to know if my image is sharp or not.     


Linda said she made her scarf in 2.5 hours.  It took me more like 4 hours.  But I was dealing with very odd-shaped pieces of fabric and had some trouble finding the bias.  The grey flannel is from a set of sheets I bought at the thrift store.  That was a rather large piece of material to deal with.  The other fabrics were in small enough pieces that I had to piece it together to make them long enough.  


Overall I am very pleased with this scarf.  I love the softness and warmth provided by both the chenille effect and the flannel.  I spent no money making the scarf either.  I love to be able to finish a project without having to run to the store to buy supplies.  I chose not to make the tassels on the ends, opting for a simpler look.  But I love the way Linda's tassels look like twisty little caterpillars.....I may slice in some tassels down the road!

I'm curious to hear your comments on this post.  What do you think of this technique?  Would you ever try it?  Any tips on switching your camera over to manual settings would be greatly appreciated as well!

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,
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Before you click away, I'd like to invite you to join in my current sewing/craft challenge.  

5 comments:

  1. Your pictures look great rikka! what camera are you using?

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  2. It looks great Rikka, I have always wanted to have a go at chenille, it sounds like I really should just go ahead and try it!

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  3. Beautiful scarf Rikka - and fabulous photos too!
    Hope you have a very Merry Christmas and that Santa is good to you all!

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  4. Rikka, I love your scarf! the two sides are beautiful. I've done the chenille technique before. To make it, I used 7 layers of fabric, I made a straight seams only on the long side of the scarf, at a distance of 1 to 1.5cm between them and then just going to cut 3 layers on one side and 3 layers on the other side, the layer in the middle is what I will use as the basis. The important thing is to do the sewing, always in the biais of the fabric, so they will look like tunnels, where I will cut then. I bought a kit for chenille, which facilitate the cutting.
    Your photos are perfect as well as your scarf, thanks for sharing!
    You did a beautiful job!!!!!!

    I wish you a Merry Christmas!!!!
    Marisa from http://passionetcouture.blogspot.ca/

    ReplyDelete
  5. LOVE the colours in your scarf, Rikka and the texture also. Your photos are awesome. My daughter has shown me a few different things to try with my camera, but I'm just not motivated enough to do more by myself. I do like to just point and click and spend more time on the sewing. And when I'm not in a hurry to write a blog post, I'll sometimes get my daughter to take photos for me.

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