Project: Red Velour Spaghetti Scarf

Click to enlarge

While rummaging in the hat box where I keep my doll-making supplies, I dug up a length of red stretch velour. It was probably a remnant that I bought to make doll clothes out of, but since I was not really in the mood to make doll clothes, I decided to try out a scarf-making method I came across on the web and pinned to my clothes sewing board on Pinterest.

The original is for a spaghetti scarf made out of an old t-shirt, but stretch velour has the same properties as t-shirt jersey, in that it rolls up in exactly the same manner when you cut it into lengths and then pull on it. I started by squaring up the piece and ended up with a length approximately 150 cm long and 45 cm wide. I then sewed the ends together, using a zig-zag stitch to get some give in it. I could actually have stopped there and simply used it as a long cowl scarf. Because the fabric looks quite different in the back and front and would therefore show the seam quite clearly, it isn‘t really suitable for an infinity scarf, but it drapes just like one.

Click to enlarge

 I wanted a solid section that could be drawn over the head and a spaghetti section that would dangle and drape nicely, and so I measured the approximate length from one shoulder to the other, over the head, and marked that with a couple of pins. I then laid out the doubled fabric piece and cut to that mark. I then gently but firmly stretched each length to make the edges roll up and voila: a half-solid, half-spaghetti scarf.

Project: Recycled blue tote bag

(Click any image to enlarge). Here is my latest project.

I didn't have anything specific to do yesterday and started looking for something to occupy my time (unusually for me, I didn't feel like reading). Then I remembered this embroidered blue Indian handbag and decided to make it the focus of a project:

The handbag

 I bought it second hand a couple of years ago, but because parts of it were too tatty and worn for me to want to use it as a handbag, I had the notion of cutting it up and using the least worn parts in a crazy quilt. However, I then forgot about it and it ended up packed away with some fabrics I was saving up to use in quilting.

The curtain

I started rummaging in the old sea-chest I use for storing my fabrics and where I was sure I had put the bag, but first I came across a length of denim café curtain I had bought an even longer time ago, intending to use it to make tote bags and table mats and possibly a denim rag quilt if there was any fabric left. All that got made of that project was a single tote bag that I gave to my mother, that she still uses. It has now, about 6 years after I made it, lost the "brand-new jeans" look and is beginning to look interestingly faded and worn.

The handbag lining turned into an inner pocket

Also in the chest was the handbag. I noticed how the blue of the bag fit nicely with the blue of the denim, with the shiny, patterned and embroidered viscose making a nice contrast with the dull, pristine indigo of the denim.

How the strap is sewn on

I set to work. I cut up the bag, removed the lining and sewed the back to the front. I cut a piece of the curtain to the right size (removing the hanging loops) and sewed it all together, adding some cream trim to lighten it up. The front panel of the handbag became an outside pocket, with the back panel as the pocket lining. The inside lining became an inside pocket for the tote,and the strap became a strap for the tote.

Squaring up the bottom

I used the thick, wide hem of the curtain as the bottom part of the bag and squared it up to form a flat bottom.

The result is somewhere between a handbag and a tote bag, but since it has a shoulder strap and no handles I prefer to call it a tote. I will probably use it as a book bag: