Sewing Scarves

How difficult can sewing scarves be?

Difficult isn’t exactly the word I’d use. It can be downright easy. Fair warning: it can also be time consuming. It all comes down to the fabric choice.

I whipped up a variety of scarves for my mom for her birthday since she shared she couldn’t find anything close to what she was looking for in the store. She wanted to match two specific tops she got, so she sent me pictures and off I went! I sourced my fabric from Mood this time around since they have such a huge selection, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The Inspiration

I did a quick search for scarf sewing patterns just to see what would pop up, and found a simple walk-through for a scarf with some gathered detail I’d never seen before, and a sort of color-blocked black shimmery scarf I liked. I also used an off-the-rack scarf of my own as inspiration for the tassel-y version.

The Fabric & The Makes

Chiffon (garnet and black polyester chiffon) Even though I’ve never sewn with chiffon before, I had heard it can be fickle to work with. I knew I would use a single layer for the chiffon versions I was planning to make, which meant hemming, which sent me digging for whatever tips I could find before I actually purchased the stuff. And that brought me to this video: How to sew clean chiffon edges the simple way. No ironing, no trimming. Turns out to work pretty well, although it’s not a quick process at all. These two scarves probably took me the longest out of all five.

Port Royale Satin with Fine Faille Backing This fabric turned out to be heavier than I anticipated, but still beautiful. It was easy enough to work with. It does wrinkle pretty easily, but tolerates ironing on a low setting well, and held the gathers well. As with all satin-like fabric, it has a tendency to amplify every little mistake.

Italian Metallic Black Stretch Knit It may seem weird to make a scarf out of stretchy fabric, but this isn’t the first time I’ve done it. The second scarf I ever made used knit fabric and to this day it is one of my absolute favorite scarves. I also made one as a muslin a week or two ago before diving into the rest of these, and that uses the same knit as my GG Vneck. The moral of the story: make your scarf out of whatever fabric you want. There’s no wrong choice here. I used this metallic black stretch knit on two of the five scarves for my mom. It’s very pretty, but oddly (for a knit) shed a lot of tiny fibers at the cut edges. It was very easy to work with, though.

For one version, I paired it with some 6″ black knotted fringe trim on 45° ends. I’m not sure if my mom will like that or not, but it’s okay if she doesn’t. One of the ends is a little wonky because I failed to catch the trim in the seam.

For the other version, I paired it with Black Polyester Satin-Faced Georgette which was a lot lighter than I anticipated. I had planned to make a version entirely out of this Georgette until I felt it, and I just couldn’t visualize the kind of scarf it wanted to be. So it became friends with the knit. This version features 30° angled ends. I divided the full 60″ length of the scarf into thirds and cut two thirds out of the knit, and one third out of the georgette. I sewed the Georgette in the middle, repeated with a second set, and then sewed the two final pieces together.

Ready to Gift

My mom hasn’t received them as of this writing yet, so I’m not sure which is her favorite. My personal favorite is a toss-up between the chiffon and the knit/Georgette combo. I do love the gathered detail, but the satin just isn’t my style. I plan to make a version like that for myself out of a different fabric. I might attempt to angle the gathered panel and the ends for a bit of a twist on the original. I’m also definitely going to try this braided infinity scarf, too.

She got them and she loves them all! 😊 “I LOVE LOVE LOVE the scarves. Absolutely perfect. You’ll never find such nice ones in the stores around here,”  she said.

This is the best feeling.