I pinned this fabulous scarf a few months ago on Pinterest, not having a clue just how simple, fun and easy it was to create, then promptly forgot about it.
Ever do that? You pin something gorgeous, think “one day…when I’m courageous enough to attempt this elaborate endeavor”, forget about it for a few months, and then…in a moment of epic bravery…you buy a t-shirt for 8 cents at a thrift store, chop it up, dab a few drops of fabric glue and voila, it’s a gorgeous ruffley scarf!?
I’m left thinking…”what on earth took me so long to take that on?!”
This scarf is that delightfully simple endeavor.
All it took was seeing one wrapped around the neck of a precious friend at a women’s event I spoke at a few weeks ago to get my scissors snippin’. It just so happens I went home and made two within the week, in time to use as a profound visual {for the way God takes the old scraps of who we once were and creates something beautiful He displays proudly} at the women’s event I spoke at this last weekend.
How convenient is that, eh?
After several mini demos throughout the day, I promised them I’d post a tutorial, so here you go YHR ladies:
You can get step-by-step instructions in video form right here, or simply follow these steps…
You’ll need:
- A large clean, thin/stretchy t-shirt
- Fabric scissors
- An 8 to 9 inch plate
- A washable marker {to trace around the plate}
- Fabric glue
- Start by tracing and cutting eight to ten 8 inch circles from your shirt {four to five from each side, front and back}. The larger the shirt, the more circles you’ll fit in. Eight circles will make a slightly thinner ‘cluster’ of ruffles, but works just fine.
- You can be brave and cut front and back at the same time {it saves tracing and cutting time}, or cut front and back separately, it’s up to you.
- Once your circles have been cut out, simply cut a spiral, about 2 inches thick, starting from the outside and working your way into the center of each circle. No measuring is done in this part, just wing it, being careful to cut as smoothly and evenly as possible. Variety in your spirals simply adds to the effect.
Note: While this part is not touched on in any of the tutorials I read/watched, you’ll want to play a little with how you cut the inside swirl of the circle. There doesn’t seem to be a clear/right way to cut it, so once you stretch it out, pulling the two ends away from each other and running your hand down over the ruffles, you may find you want to trim the tightly curled end a wee bit so it falls nicely {see above – pre-tweaked on the left, and trimmed partially on the right}.
- The part where you cut INTO the circle is a looser curl than the innermost coil of the circle {see bottom of ruffle below – it’s tight}. The looser end is what you’ll attach to the looser end of another tendril {see below right}. You’ll have 4 to 5 tendrils hanging down each side of your neck – depending how many circles you cut.
Please Note: If you’re a smartie-pants like me, you might try and simplify the process by cutting fewer, larger circles in the hopes of boycotting the gluing-in-the-back part. Don’t do it. I tried cutting six 12 inch circles, intending to simply let them drape around my neck. Clever, yeah? Nope. My cocky short-cut simply got me an ugly scarf…that my daughter wears proudly to school. Bless her heart.
This brilliant move experiment was made before I knew there was a tight {read: pretty} end, and a loose {read: blah!} end to each ruffle. You craft and you learn, I suppose.
In short, the gorgeous way these coils fall – like a Japanese Wonder Shell – only happen when falling, uninterrupted, from just behind your neck. When fully wrapped around your neck, you lose the effect. Doh.
- Next, once all your circles have been cut into spirals, layer your ‘loose ends’ on top of each other with a dab of fabric glue between them {overlapping then about an inch or two – see above right}.
- Snip a little scrap of t-shirt fabric from your leftovers and tie tightly around the glued bundle.
- Ta-da! You have your t-shirt ruffle scarf, which you can now tie loosely around your neck, or pin with a pretty flower.
I attempted a quick t-shirt rosette from the scrap of another t-shirt when I was all but t-shirted out…but it was blech and glue-caked at best. I’ll definitely be making more in the future, when I actually have felt and the desire to fire up my glue gun. So stay tuned!
My mum and I played with a few other well-worn t-shirt hacking ideas that we stumbled upon while feeding our Pinterest addiction, like the slouchy infinity scarf donned by a make-up-less yours truly, and the spiffy little black and white necklace ‘snakes’ above, so there’ll definitely be some more scissor action in our new future.
Oh.my.goodness, people… the possibili-Tees are endless!
{Please…humor me and applaud my cheesy attempt at being punny. Then go chop up a shirt in my honor}
