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Wednesday, 16 January 2008 08:28 |
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My family and my husband's family both decided to do a white elephant gift exchange this year. Instead of going out and buying two $10 gifts, I decided to make something. Or at least embellish something. Inspiration came when I saw a $3 fleece blanket at Ikea with a wonderfully scalloped edge. I knew I could make something wonderful out of it so I bought two.
My original idea was to use my mother-in-law's Bernina sewing machine to embroider snowflakes on the blankets. This idea worked out perfectly for one of the blankets (sorry, forgot to take pics - it did turn out nicely). But on the second blanket, I messed up when threading the machine and ended up creating a tear in the felt. And it wasn't a small one. I had some blue felt lying around so I went ahead and embroidered it with the snowflake pattern. I thought I would use the embroidered felt to cover up the hole. But on the drive home, inspiration hit me.
 When I got home, I cut a 6 inch wide strip from the fleece blanket. The scalloped edge of the blanket now became the scalloped ends of a scarf. I then cut around the snowflakes embroidered on the felt, ironed on some no-sew to the back, and viola, they were appliqués! I ironed the 3 appliqué pieces onto the scarf and decided it needed a little more embellishment. In my handy craft cabinet, I found some embroidery thread I bought awhile back (I keep meaning to learn how to embroider). So I did a simple stitch around the appliqués to give them that hand made touch.
 It is an understatement to say that I was thrilled with the result! Such a simple and cheap project, but with a very attractive and unique result.
When it came time for the white elephant gift exchange, I knew what I wanted. So when it came time to pick a gift from the pile, I picked my own :) My brother-in-law tried to steal it from me, but I had the hubby steal it back. There was no way I was going home with a singing lobster and not my newly beloved scarf! Luckily, there was a rule that a gift could only be stolen twice so the scarf was safe. And now I have a new favorite winter accessory!
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I hope you
