What's better than a cozy fleece scarf? A cozy fleece scarf with embroidered pockets! Warm your hands or even stash mittens and other small items in the ends of this roomy scarf.
Fleece is great for projects because it's easy to find, pretty inexpensive, and comes in an enormous variety of colors.
Read below for these free project instructions!
Supplies & Materials:
- 2 yards fleece (for scarf and outer pockets)
- 1/3 yard fleece (for inner pocket lining)
- Temporary spray adhesive
- Air-erase pen or other marking tool
- Medium weight cutaway stabilizer
- Two - 13 inch lengths of extra wide double fold bias tape
The designs used in this tutorial include:
First, to prepare the fabric for the pockets, cut two pieces of fleece to 12 inches by 12 inches. Next, using an air-erase pen of other marking tool, measure and mark the center of each side by measuring and dividing by two. Then, draw lines connecting the marks - these marks will be used for hooping.
Create a paper template of the design by printing it at full size using embroidery software. If you don't have embroidery software, you can cut a piece of paper the shape and dimensions of the design to help with placement and centering.
Poke a hole in the center of the templates and align them with the center points on the fabric. Make sure the design fits well within the space - there should be at least 1 1/2 inch of space between the edges of the design and the outer edges of the shape.
Remove the templates and spray a piece of medium weight cutaway stabilizer with temporary adhesive and smooth the fabric on top. Also, since we are embroidering on a fluffy textured fleece, we are adding a layer of water soluble stabilizer to the top of the fabric (we prefer Sulky Solvy or Sulky Super Solvy). This topping prevents the stitches from sinking into the fleece; however, most fleece fabrics do not require a topping.
Hoop all three layers together by aligning the marks on the hoop with the lines on the fabric. Attach the hoop to the machine and load the design. Move the hoop so that the needle is directly over the center point on the hoop. Embroider the design.
When the design has finished, trim away the excess stabilizer on the backside of the embroidery and tear away the water soluble topping. Then, repeat the hooping and embroidering process for the remaining pocket.
To prepare the inner pocket fabric, lay the embroidered pocket pieces on top of the fleece, pin in place, and cut around the shape.
Cut two pieces of extra wide double fold bias tape to 13 inches long. Wrap the bias tape around the top edges of the pockets around both layers of fabric and pin in place. Sew the tape in place by sewing along the inner edge of the tape.
Cut a piece of fleece to 12 inches wide by 72 inches long. Lay the fleece flat with the wrong side facing up. Align the pocket pieces at each end of the fleece with the right side of the pockets (embroidered side) facing down and the bias tape top edge facing towards the center of the scarf. Pin the pockets in place. Then, using a round object like a plastic lid (we used a ribbon spool) trace the shape at each bottom corner of the pockets and then trim the corners.
Sew a 1/2 inch seam along the side and bottom edges of each of the pockets.
Turn the pockets right side out. Finger press the seams and then topstitch a 3/4 inch seam along the sides and bottom edges of the pockets.
To finish the scarf, fold the outer side edges in to the right side 1/2 inch and zigzag stitch them in place following the inner edges of the folds.
This scarf is the perfect addition to your winter wardrobe and also makes a great holiday gift!
