Valentine Idea Number 1

I have quite a number of fleece scraps left over from the hundreds of changing pad bags I've made over the past couple of years. For his birthday in November, I gave my nephew a very long loop of fleece in his school colors. I pictured him sharing it with his girlfriend at football games. I talked him into modeling it with my son for the blog. It's not a product I am going to carry, so I was pretty casual about the photography.

scarf for two print by theblackapple

I think Emily Martin captured the idea I had in mind in her artwork. It's just some 6" wide random lengths of anti-pill fleece sewn together on the serger because I like the look of the serging. When I was in highschool, I would have loved this as a valentine gift. Feel free to use this scarf idea for your own shop if you are so inclined.

How to make a quilted scarf

Here is the "How to" for making this quilted cotton, fleece backed scarf. This will make a great gift for people, like me, who like a colorful creative look, and want to keep warm this Winter. Since fleece is water resistant, this makes it onto the practical peoples gift list as well.

This scarf is using up Amy Butler fabric scraps from tea party chairs and fleece scraps from compact travel changing pad bags.


My daughter gave it to one of her 8 year old friends at a recent birthday party, but only after putting in an order for "one just like it only in turquoise."

1. Cutting one long edge with a pinking blade, (a decorative zig-zag cut) make your base of fleece about 1/2" wider than you want the finished width. I pieced mine by cutting ends on the bias and stitching together, without overlapping edges, with a walking zig-zag stitch. That is a stitch that has 3 little stitches inside each zig or zag. If you don't have that stitch, a regular zig-zag can work too. Also, if you start with enough fleece, (I was using up scraps) then you don't have to piece it together.





2. Piece your cottons together and finish by pressing seams open and pressing edges under all around. Can you tell I like bias cuts this year? Again, I was using scraps from other projects.

Note: I made the length of the cotton 12" shorter than the fleece to allow for a 6" fringe to be cut of the fleece at the ends.

3. With wrong sides together, stitch the cotton to the fleece. Start with the long edge that is finished with the pinking blade, and stitch the folded under cotton close to that edge, then go all the way around the four sides. Again, I used the running zig-zag.

I think you can see the stitch in this photo. The reason I like that stitch is that it gives a nice flat finish to the cotton while allowing the fleece to stretch. A straight stitch can't do that, and a regular zig-zag doesn't finish as well.

4. Trim the other long edge of the fleece close to the cotton with the pinking blade. Now you have nice, soft, pinked edges.

5. Quilt the cotton to the fleece as you like. For this one, my quilting is fairly open. It looks random from the back, but from the front it is following the designs on the fabrics. Remember that the more quilting you do, the less you will be able to enjoy the water wicking properties of the fleece. Keep the quilting light if you are going to be in a wet climate.

6. Cut the uncovered ends of the fleece into fringe, as shown.

Here is a fuller view of the finished scarf, hanging on our soon to be Christmas tree, at the tree farm.