Simple handmade gifts...ruffled scarves

As well as enabling my love of home design inspiration, blogging has also given me the opportunity to explore the projects of some very talented sewing bloggers. In the middle of last year, I came across a great tutorial for an anthropologie-inspired catch and release scarf, on the blog presser foot.

I thought this seemed such an easy-to-make project, and such a great idea for a gift that I filed the post away in my memory as a possible future project. Well, in the last few weeks of December I decided to make one of these for each of a small group of friends whom I have known since high school (those of the christmas decoration tradition), and store them up to gift as birthday gifts throughout this year. 

I followed the tutorial exactly as described by Kelli in her post here. I purchased 4 metres of cotton muslin fabric from the Cloth House in Soho which was sufficient to make all 6 scarves, and I think cost me a sum total of about £12. I then used Dylon hand-dye as that is what is available here in the UK. I used three separate colours in all - chosen to compliment each friends tastes/style.

I'd have to confess that making all 6 at once became a little tedious at times as I felt like an assembly worker at one stage - but now I'm pleased that they are all done, and I can just pull each one out at the relevant time and pop a little parcel in the post to Australia as a birthday-surprise.


If you are looking for a simple but personal handmade gift, then I can recommend this tutorial - no complicated sewing required!