Fleece Fun

We had the pleasure of having our granddaughters for the New Year’s weekend.  John and I met their parents at the interstate on New Year’s Eve afternoon.  Our first stop was to go to a fabric shop and choose some fleece that would go well with their winter coats.  We were going to make scarves and hats the next day and I wanted them to choose a fabric they liked.

The rest of the day we just had fun!  We spent a lot of time at the Hastings museum, ate at a fast food joint then went to see the new movie “Gulliver's Travels before we headed home.  It was a great day and the girls were so excited about everything we did.  At 9 and 10 they are easy to take places, are serious and interested in all kinds of stuff and can be silly too.

New Year’s morning I decided to make a prototype of the scarf and hat first to make sure the directions and sizes I had figured out would work.  I did use the pattern from this web page for the basis of our project.  The hat and scarf on the web page were made of two fabrics but we just used one, but made them the same way.

Since I don’t show the grandkids photos on my blog to help protect their privacy you will just see hands and bodies.  They are cute and I would love to show you all how cute but I made a decision when I started my blog they were off limits as far as photos of their faces go.

The girls used the rotary cutter but not quite like the photo here shows….this was just set up for the camera and the guard is still on too.  Actually I had my arm over theirs with my hand on top of theirs when they used the cutter.  I just don’t trust that they will not cut something or themselves and figured I could help guide them and they could still “do it themselves.”

D. wanted her scarf to be about 9” wide but S. wanted hers wider so she cut hers 13” wide.  The length was cut at 1 1/2 yd.  We bought 1 1/2 yards of the fabrics so the scarves could be cut on the length wise grain.  We cut two pieces for each scarf.

The fringe was cut 4” long and made cuts every 1” for the width of each fringe.  I figured that 1” cuts for fringe would be best for little girls to cut but I would probably cut them 1/2” wide myself.  The fringe was cut before they stitched the long sides of the scarf.  Whoops, D. has the cutter open.  Sure didn’t see that when I took the photo.



After the fringe was cut they pinned the right sides of the scarf together then stitched them with a 1/2” seam.  It worked out great for them to use the walking foot on the machine and we moved the needle to the left so they could guide the fabric along the edge of the foot for the 1/2” seam allowance.  The stitching was started and stopped just before the fringe started.  Notice D’s finger nail polish…every other fingernail is painted either pink or blue.  She told me she did it herself and didn’t I think it was pretty, although it was coming off in a few places.




The next step is turning the tube inside out and lightly pressing the seams flat.  Don’t use really high heat as you might melt the fleece.


The last stitching on the scarf was done 1/2” from the long edges and across the top of the fringe (about 1/4” from the top of the fringe.  I didn’t want the girls to draw any lines on their scarf so we used a piece of tape across the top and bottom to make a line they could follow.  Ta-Da….the scarf is done!
The Hat was pretty simple to make too.  I measured the girls heads and they cut the hat 1” bigger than their head.  Cut the fleece with the stretchiest  direction going around the hat.  The length of the hat was figured this way….4” fringe + measurement of center of head to below ears + 3 times the width of the cuff. 

Cut the 4” fringe with 1” cuts across the top then stitch a side seam with right sides together, stopping the stitching just below the fringe.  Fold up 3 times the cuff width and pin then stitch it down with a stretch stitch.  The top is closed this way.  Cut a 1” strip of the fleece and tie it around the hat just below the cut fringe.  Adjust the fullness as you tighten up the tie then pull it very tight then tie in a double knot then trim the ends even with the other fringe and the hat is done.  I didn’t get any progress photos of making the hat but  the girls made them very quickly and I was tired and wanting to sit in my chair with my legs up.

OK – now to see the finished projects…our granddaughters have smiley faces but maybe not quite this smiley.  They were so proud of their sewing project and couldn’t wait to wear them so went with John to water the cows and check for wildlife down by the river.  They didn’t see any deer or turkeys but had a good time and told me the new scarves and hats were really warm.  The temperature was about 10 degrees F about 4 pm so it was cold out.

Until Later,
Lynn