Scarfapalooza 2011

Sorry my posts have been infrequent as of late . . . remember the "Breaking Dawn" purse from the last post?  Well, it was a hit and I got orders to make two more!  Not to mention, I've had tons of regular orders as well.  This holiday season has been awesome for my shop!

I have a lot of people to "gift" for, as I'm sure all you guys do.  I always like to make presents for the 4 nieces on my side of the family . . . sorry, in-laws.  You have too many dadgum kids!  ; )  Seriously, I love all my nieces.  I always like to imagine I'm the cool aunt that watches "Adventure Time" and makes cool purses.  I'm afraid that I'm actually the creepy aunt that makes my nieces ugly crap and makes them put it on so I can take endless pictures.  Sigh.  Oh well.  You decide . . .

I've had fun playing with t-shirt scarves lately.  Here's my first one:

I made it to go with this dress--it has a crazy pattern in crazy colors so I never have any accessories to wear with it.  I cut up part of an old "Whoppers" t-shirt from high school to make it.  I get tons of compliments whenever I wear it.  Here's a great tutorial showing the basic method to making this kind of scarf.  All you need is a pair of scissors, a 100% cotton t-shirt and five minutes.  Literally.

I like my crafts like I like my women: cheap and easy.  (That's a joke.  I like difficult crafts, too.)  I decided to make scarves for my nieces.  I only had one day to do it since 3 of them were going to Utah for Christmas.  I did 5 scarves total in one afternoon.  Some of them are a little crazy but I was going on what they said their favorite colors were and also their personalities.

This was the first one I made for my friend Shelonna.  I really like the chunky braid . . . if you can braid hair, you can make this scarf.

A different version of the braid one for my oldest niece.

Neon green and purple, with a tiny peace sign charm for the next one . . .

I loved how the scarf matched the outfit she was already wearing!

Next up, for my 6 year old niece who said her favorite color was "ice blue."  Where do they come up with this stuff?  Anyway, I cut up an old shirt of mine that had a ruffled neckline.  I cut the neckline out and used it as one of the strands.  I thought it came out really pretty but . . . 

You can't please everyone.  LOL . . . 

Finally, for my 3 year old niece who is a total diva . . . 

A ruffled scarf.  This is perfect for the Diva since it resembles a feather boa.  These are so adorable and require NO sewing.  They're a little more complicated but it doesn't require any special skills (here's a great tutorial for this one).  The little candy cane rosette is glued to a hair clip that can be worn in her hair (doy) or as an accent on the scarf.

Since she's only 3, I didn't think she'd get what it was since it's basically a pile of fluffiness.  (Tip: When you layer all the different ruffles together, sew a tiny stitch in the middle to keep from losing layers and to keep them together.)

But I tell you, she opened it up and gasped, "I got a pink scarf!"  She wrapped it around her neck right away and didn't take it off the whole night!  She loved it.

So if you're still scratching your head (or digging through an empty wallet) on what to do for Christmas, these scarves are a great option, not to mention fun to make.