How I Made It: Infinity Scarf

As the weather is cooling down (I live in Alaska, it's happening now!), I've been looking for a way to make my summer tops work without having to break out the sweaters and hoodies (Alaska, remember?).  My favorite local clothing shop always has tons of colorful scarves that would work well for this purpose, but they are usually either too long- I'm 5 feet zero- or too expensive.  After a little while hours browsing around Pinterest and reading tutorials on making scarves, I decided I'd better just dive in and try it myself.

I am not calling this a tutorial because I can't take credit for coming up with this method of scarf-making. I made my scarves after reading so many fabulous tutorials put together by others (which started to blur together after awhile), and I just combined the parts that I liked best about them.  I took pics of each step as I went, partly so I would remember what I did for future reference, and partly to show you how I did it.

Most of the scarf tutorials that I found had you buy two yards of fabric in order to have one continuous piece on each side of the scarf, with the only seam being to join the ends together.  I wanted to use up some larger scraps that I have been holding on to, and since an infinity scarf is usually worn looped and twisted, I didn't see the need to buy new fabric when I could just join together what I already had.

Choose a width for your scarf and cut enough strips to make it as long as you'd like.  I made my strips 7" wide and about 60" in total length.

I got scrappy with the other side of my scarf...just cut enough 7" wide pieces to join together to the appropriate length.

Sew all the pieces together into one strip for the front and one for the back.  Press the seams open.

Lay the two pieces right sides together.

Sew down the long sides, starting and ending each side seam about a half inch from the end.

Turn the scarf right-side out.

Press the edges.

Press down the two unfinished edges of one side of the scarf.

Place the unfinished edges of the side you didn't press down together.

Sew the edge you just matched up with a half-inch seam allowance, being careful not to catch the folded-down edges.

Press open the seam.

Tuck the pressed edges inside the folded-back edges.

Press one of the folded-back edges in on top of the sewn edges.

Press the folded-back edge flat, and then press it under a quarter of an inch to create a finished edge.

You have two options to finish the scarf.  You can hand sew the seam so there are no visible stitches.  I despise hand-sewing.  I just stitched close to the edge of the folded-under edge.  

Voila!

The Washi scarf on the right was actually my second.  I made the one on the left first.  It is a bit shorter in length (fits me great, but may be too small for others).  The fabrics in the scarf on the left are from Echo by Lotta Jansdotter.

Perfect with a long-sleeved t for a cool morning at the playground!  Excuse the iPhone self-portrait.