Socks!

I just made the best darned fleece socks in the world! They better be after I broke two sewing machine needles on the second one, and by golly they are. ^_^

[I was using pins to mark where to sew, and ran the needle right over the plastic head of the pin. The first time the needle broke at the eye and so fell apart, the second time it broke right over the eye, leaving the end of the needle around the thread. Thankgoodness nothing else in the machine broke, and I have a goddess for a mother as she gave me 15 replacement needles with the machine itself.)

I'm awesome. I now have matching fleece socks and scarf, and I'm going to try a hat and gloves soon. It took me around 2 hours to make the socks. :( I'm sure I'll get faster, but I don't know how much faster, or faster enough to be worth it, or how fast I'll get faster... Man, if a half-hour scarf is worth $15, these things shoudl be worth $60 all by themselves!


The top edge is a bit messy...


... but not as messy as the heel joint. I'm going to have to sew one of them up by hand already.


And here's a self-portrait in my socks and scarf. :-P

More scarf info

It takes me around 30 minutes to make a scarf, and on average a dollar's worth of material. I've been folding them up small and then rolling and tieing up with a scrap of the same color and putting them in gift bags. All my friends are going to get them for Christmas! :) These things usually run for $15 in stores.

Scarves

Earlier this week I was thinking about crochetting scarves, and how long it takes, and how I find the simple yarns boring and the fancy yarns make me lose count. Then I looked at the scarf I'd been wearing for a while - fleece - and a lightbulb went off. A couple days of searching later, and I'd found a fabric store with a convenient sale on items! Solid color fleece that normally went for $8/yd was reduced to $4/yd, and I found a yard of black in the remnants bin, along with some fancy cloth that will make fancy scarves.

To make a fleece scarf:

1. Cut to 12" wide (and as long as the fabric allows). Make sure the edges are straight and not ragged. (I'm a n00b, and don't have fancy equipment so this's a challenge for me.) If you're lazy, your scarf is already done.


2. Measure around 4" from each end, and stick in a pin to mark it. This will be the tassels.


3. Using a thread color that matches or contrasts (your preference of course!), hem up the long edges, and across the short edge where the pins are placed.


4. Cut fringes/tassels into the unsewn ends, I make them around an inch wide, and stop cutting around 1 cm from where the thread is. Now you are done for my fancy version.


5. Other options include making it double thick (if the pattern is one-sided), folding over the edges before sewing it up, and other forms of tassels.

The hardest part of this all was figuring out how the sewing machine worked. I'd last used it some 8 years ago...

I'm going to gift a few of these scarves to friends, but I'm going to have leftover fleece. Anyone ever try selling on eBay? I'm worried I'll waste my money posting about them and not actually sell any.