I hope all the mothers out there had a lovely Mother's Day! Mine was an interesting one...I'll tell you more about that on Really Random Thursday. Today, I'd like to share what I made for my mom for Mother's Day. (Click on any of the photos in this post to make them larger.)
I made her this linen scarf, with a bunch of different colors of peach floss. (Yes, I used DMC despite my previous experience, because I had already purchased it prior to my last experience. So, Mom, be careful washing it!) The "fringe" on the scarf is the beautiful selvedge on this fabric. I am happy with how it turned out.
Here is a more full view of it. The morning sun was pretty bright, so you can barely see the hand stitching on it in this shot, but this shot does give you a feel for the size of the scarf. The half-way point is at the top of the branch. It's about 17" wide and 80" long. It's a really nice size for a shawl or scarf.
I used a kit and a tutorial from The Purl Bee, and you can find the tutorial right here. This is not difficult to make at all, though it did take a little time. There is one machine-sewn seam in the entire thing. The rest is all hand sewn. So, it takes a little time. But that was okay with me. You know, one thing I enjoy about making hand-made gifts for people is that while I am working on them, I am reflecting on that person, fun times we've had together, etc. So, I enjoyed having some quiet time to reflect on my mother and how lucky I am that she's my mom.
The design is made by a series of lines that are running stitches. So, this would be a great beginner embroidery project. Very easy. And all the knots on the ends are hidden in the side hems, which you do last. The pattern even provides instructions for how to vary your colors on up the way. I modified the color scheme from the pattern so that the colors graduate from dark to light as they progress up the scarf.
I was having a fun photo shoot with the scarf, because we finally had a summy morning. Again, the fringe is super easy to do, because it's already tehre as part of the selvedge. To make the base of the scarf, all I had to do was tear a yard of fabric in half, from selvedge to selvedge and seam it together.
Here is the seam where you sew the selvedges together. I'm not sure what you would call this seam. It's almost like a flat-felled (sp?) seam that you have on jeans. It's nearly invisible, and there are no raw edges on either side. It's a beautiful way to join two pieces of fabric together when you want both sides to look equally good.
I liked this photo with the shadows of the tree branches on the scarf. :-) This linen was absolutely beautiful to work with. It was heavier than the linen I had used for my Urban Nine Patch quilt. I found myself wishing I had found and used this in that quilt instead of what I used. I think I may need to order some of this yardage just to have in my stash. I really love the hand and drape of it. It is Essex Yarn Dyed Linen. The color I used is Flax. Yummy.
Purl Bee had kits available, but I see they are currently sold out. At the time of this writing, their website does say they are getting more, and there is a link where you can request to be notified when more are in. The kits came in this peach and another with blue thread. However, you could easily go get the supplies yourself and use the tutorial to complete this project.
The tutorial is well written, with good photos to help you along the way. Very recommended project, kit, and tutorial. As I said before, I would put this at a beginner/easy project.
I love how it turned out, and I hope my mom enjoys it.
Until next time,
