Christmas Mantle Scarf

Have you noticed that there are far too few days in December?
I have waaaaaay too many projects to be completed and I don't see how I can do it all within the next 14 days?

I've been working on a couple of biggies lately, and today I'll show you one (really two) of them:

My Christmas Mantle Scarf (and reversible runner).

Actually, it's more of a dining hutch scarf because it would fall off the mantle with the girls pulling their stockings down to check each day.

The idea was taken from Grandin Road, but I've made mine a bit different to fit the area I want covered.

First off check out this tutorial.

Second, measure the width and depth of the mantle/cabinet you want to cover.

Mine was 54" (1.37m) wide by 15" (38 cm) deep.
You need to find an even number that will divide into your width so that you have full flags hanging down (and not one cut in half).
For my hutch, I knew I only wanted my flags to hang down about a foot (30cm), so I went with 6" wide flags.

Draw a little mark at the centre of the widest sections and then connect one bottom edge of the triangle to the centre mark on the opposite side of the fabric.
This will allow you to get triangles from both sides.
If that didn't make sense - check out the photo - hopefully it will.

Lay out your cut triangles (you'll need two for each flag) into an appealing pattern.
My mantle scarf is reversible, so I went with a different piece of fabric on either side of the triangle.

Right sides together, sew down the two long edges of the triangles.
Turn right-side-out and press.

Lay out your mantle section - in my case the 54" by 15" piece of fabric - right side up and then lay out your flags along the edge - base of the flags along the edge of your fabric and with points equi-distant apart.  In this case, I have two rows of flags one on top of the other.

I chose an alternate fabric to be the other side of my mantle scarf, so again I laid the 54" by 15" piece over top of the flags (right sides facing inwards) and pinned it all in place.

Sew along all four edges making sure to capture all of the flag bases in your sewing.
Leave a small opening  so that you can turn your scarf right-side-out and hand stitch afterwards.
A little pressing and you're done!

 While I had the material out, I also did a reversible table runner;

Just long rectangles sewn together to make the stripes - then take each finished striped section (right sides together) and sew around all four edges leaving a small opening for turning.
Turn out, hand stitch the opening closed and press.

If I flip it over, the edges will have the patterned material and the centre will be the green silk.

Both of these projects took me about 2 hours to do from start to finish and I believe the material came in around $30 or so.
Again, this will depend on the width of your mantle/cabinet, how long you want the flags to hang down and the length you want on your table.

Another biggie project on the blog tomorrow!

Have a great one!
  
 




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