Refashion Tutorial: Make a T-shirt Infinity Scarf

Some people are obsessed with clothes and have overflowing closets. Other people obsessively buy shoes and have dozens and dozens of them. I, myself, have a thing for neckwear.

Except for the hottest, most humid summer months, when I can’t bear to have anything on my skin, I love the feeling of having something around my neck. I have tons of necklaces (some of which you can see on my DIY driftwood necklace hanger) and tons more scarves.

About a year and a half ago I got hit by the infinity scarf bug. I have no idea just how many I’ve sewn, but I have more than I can possibly keep track of and have given many more away as gifts.

See? Here I am in May 2015 (May 30 from my Me Made May 2015 challenge, to be precise) with a series of light springtime infinity scarves that I’d made that day. (I was also about two months in out of the 18 months or so it took to grow out my short pixie haircut!)

I had some strips of fabric left over from these pant-to-skirt refashions that I did for my daughter, so those became scarves with one printed side and one solid side, an effect that looks wonderful when they get looped around the neck. (Find out how to sew infinity scarves with one or more colors here.)

But the infinity scarf that I got (and continue to get) the most compliments on was this Spanish-style one with red pompom trim. I cut up the entire shirt, right up to the neck and including the sleeves, and pieced the pieces together along with the trim to make a loop that was wide enough to fit over my head twice. You can see the bit of lace under the neck tie incorporated in the scarf in the bottom picture above.

A lot of people asked me how I made the scarf and I got more than one request for a tutorial. So now that I’ve explained how to sew knit fabric without any overstretching, bunching, snapped threads or holes, I thought that it was about time to finally explain how to make these!

I’ve given instructions on two styles of T-shirt infinity scarf. The first is a pretty simple two-color version that only takes about 15 minutes to make. The second is a more complex version of the first, using pieces from any number of shirt. You can get really creative and use up fabric scraps, or even salvage usuable parts of stained and/or ripped t-shirts.

These scarves are wonderful gifts, too, so raid your closet for shirts you don’t use anymore and sew up a colorful and unique T-shirt infinity scarf for everyone you know this holiday season! Let’s get started! Two-tone T-shirt infinity scarf

Materials:

• two t-shirts without printed images on them below the armpits
• fabric shears
• ballpoint pins*
• 90/14 stretch needle*
• walking foot (highly suggested. See my tutorial here to learn how to use it.)

I highly suggest you read my lesson on sewing knit fabric to know the importance of choosing the right stitch, needle, thread and other considerations. I also suggest you read my tutorial on how to sew an infinity scarf to understand the general construction process.

1. Iron the shirts and lay them out flat. Cut off the bottom hem and then cut across the shirt just under the armpits.

2. If the shirt has no side seams, cut down one side to open the loop into a long rectangle. If the shirt does have side seams, cut one off, thereby also removing any annoying labels.

3. Pin together and sew one short end of each rectangle, right sides facing. Remember to use a stitch that can stretch with the jersey fabric. (top)

4. Fold the now very long rectangle in half lengthwise, right sides facing, and pin the long sides together. Make sure that you open the seam from step #3 to avoid excessive bulk. Sew, thereby creating a long tube. (bottom)

5. As shown in more detail in my original infinity scarf tutorial, reach your hand through the tube, grab the far edge and pull it through the center so that you can line up the two raw edges, right sides facing, making sure that the seams match up. Pin the edges (top), then sew around, leaving an opening wide enough to fit your hand through.

6. Reach your hand inside the opening and pull the fabric out through it so that the entire scarf is right side out (bottom). Close up the opening with a ladder stitch, and you’re done!

Now all that’s left to do is to wrap it around your neck and have fun arranging the layers of color!

Now let’s say that you have a bunch of T-shirts, some of which may have ruined spots that can’t be used. Or say you have some children’s or size small shirts that you’d like to use. You can turn all those into infinity scarves, too! All you have to do is cut up the shirts and piece them together to create one large rectangle. Here’s how!

Pieced T-shirt infinity scarf

Materials:

• multiple t-shirts without printed images on them below the armpits
• fabric shears
• ballpoint pins*
• 90/14 stretch needle*
• walking foot (highly suggested. See my tutorial here to learn how to use it.)

Like I already said, I highly suggest you read my lesson on sewing knit fabric as well as my tutorial on how to sew an infinity scarf before starting.

1. Iron the shirts and lay them out flat. Cut off the bottom hem and then cut across the shirt just under the armpits.

2. If the shirt has no side seams, cut down one side to open the loop into a long rectangle. If the shirt does have side seams, cut one off, thereby also removing any annoying labels. (You can see detailed pictures of steps 1 and 2 in the instructions for the two-tone scarf above.)

3. Cut up the shirts, making sure to discard any stained or torn sections. Sew together the pieces, right sides facing, into long strips of the same length. (You can always trim them down to even them off.) Try to vary the positioning of the different colors so that they don’t end up next to each other. The various segments of each long strip don’t have to be the same length, but they do need to be cut to the same width so that they have continuous long edges. (top)

Each composite strip doesn’t have to be the same width as the others. As you can see above, I made two wide strips and one narrow strip from smaller pieces. (bottom) The important thing is that all composite strips are the same length.

4. Sew together the long sides of the composite strips, right sides facing. Remember to open up the seams before sewing over them, as seen above. You will now have a long tube of pieced-together jersey fabric.

5. Trim any bits of the raw edges that are sticking out.

6. Like we did in step 5 before, pin together the two short ends, right sides facing, matching up the seams when possible. Sew them together, leaving an opening wide enough for your hand.

7. Pull the fabric out through the opening so that the entire scarf is right side out. Close up the opening with a ladder stitch, and you’re done!

I love how the different colors interact with each other! It’s so fun and looks a little different every time you put it on!

You can also add some trim, just make sure that it’s soft and won’t bother your skin. All you have to do is sandwich it between the two layers when sewing the long sides of the scarf. The part of the trim you want visible (in this case, the pompoms) needs to be hidden inside between the layers of fabric.

Easy, right? Especially now that you know how to sew knits without any problems!

Now go dig out every unused T-shirt in your home and have fun putting together different colors in your infinity scarves!

This lesson on how to make a T-shirt infinity scarf is part of the syllabus of Cucicucicoo’s Learn to Machine Sew beginner’s sewing course! Don’t forget to share pictures of your scarves on Facebook or the Cucicucicoo Creations Flickr Group!

*This post contains affiliate links.

Salva