A quick and easy Christmas Infinity Scarf

Just wanted to share a quick project I made up with my serger.

At Joann's sale last weekend, I picked up some cheap cotton T-shirts. The fabric used to be a lot beefier than what you could find in a fashion retail store, and at 4 for $10, if you buy the large sizes, you can get a lot of yardage for $2.50.

So, I started with a couple of men's 2XL white shirts.
1. Press them flat and cut off the hem.

2. Fold them in half lengthwise and cut them into six inch strips. You can get two full tubular strips from a men's 2XL.

These T-shirts have no side seams. 

3. Cut one side open.  

4. Give it a twist and pin it to make that moebius strip that every good infinity scarf needs. 

5. Set your serger up to flatlock.  I used a swatch from the T-shirt's sleeve to test the flatlock settings. If you don't have a serger, try a zig zag, press it to one side, and then stitch the seam flat with a straight stitch.   

6. Set your serger up for a lettuce edge rolled hem. I used a three thread, with red wooly nylon in the loopers, and red thread in the needle.  Stitch all the way around. Because of the twist, it's one continuous run of stitching. 

If you don't have a serger, you can do this with a narrow, short stitch length zig zag, as described here. 

7. Set your serger up for cover stitch and stitch away in loose curves all the way around.  The cover stitch will look different on the two sides of the twist, even though you are still sewing all the way around once. 

8.  Finished product.  

My self-critique and suggestions

1. The T-shirt fabric was thinner than I would like, I may go poking around Joann's today and see if I can find yardage that would work better. I might also try doubling the fabric, but I'm not sure what type of lettuce edge that would give me.  A good excuse to experiment some more. . . .

2. A two thread rolled hem might have given a better lettuce effect, I will definitely swatch some more.

3. the 2XL was perhaps too wide to start with so maybe an XL would be a better source of fabric if you go the T-shirt route.

4. Since I actually made four of these, I may try straight stitching two of them together, right down the middle, perhaps ruffling it up slightly with a ruffler attachment on one of my straight stitch machines, to give the whole thing a bit more body.

5. Red and Green wave stitch might be a lovely edging for something like this as well.....

I will update on this blog if any of these experiments work!

Drop me a comment if you try this and come up with any other suggestions.