Snuggly Embellished Cashmere Cowl (upcycled, of course!)

Yes, it's another infinity scarf out of a cashmere sweater.  But this time...

Please excuse the messy model--my hair and makeup people are on vacation.

I made my two strips 10" wide and 48" long (so I needed a total of 96" of length that was 10" wide), and created more of a cowl shape.  Much snugger and a bit wider.

AAAAND, this sweater had quite a few inconveniently-placed moth holes.  If you have this problem, then pull out the scraps from the last cashmere sweater that you cut up and couldn't bear to throw out because they are so soft and nice to rub between your fingers...

Put down the bunny, Lenny.

And cover up the holes with cute little flowers sewn from the scraps!  Or dots, or stars, or whatever shapes you feel like cutting out.

To make these flowers, I just cut out a circle shape and a four-petaled flower, then sewed the flower to the circle with two perpendicular lines crossing at the center of the flower to hold the petals down but allow the edges to curl up.  Then I attached them to the scarf by sewing all the way around the edges of the circles (pulling the petals up to get underneath them) while the scarf was still in two pieces.

To review the making of the scarf, here's the short version of the tutorial found here (where it's explained much better):

1.  Cut up your sweater into strips.  Usually I make the strips about 8' wide, and cut as many as I can out of the sleeves and body of the sweater.

2. Divide your strips so that you will end up with two strips of equal length (for a regular eternity scarf, somewhere around 54" for each piece; for a cowl you want somewhere in the neighborhood of 48-50" for each piece.)

3.  Sew the small strips together and sew short ends (right sides together) to create the two strips.

4.  (ONLY WHEN YOU'RE COVERING MOTH HOLES--or just embellishing for fun) Pin the flowers onto the right side of the scarf, covering up the moth holes, then sew down to the scarf all the way around the edges of the embellishment.

5.  Place your two long strips right sides together, then sew down the two long edges, creating a tube. Make sure to leave both ends of the tube open.

6.  Iron the seams flat.

7.  Turn the scarf right side out.

8.  Join up the two open ends by sewing as far around the opening as you can on your machine, then hand-stitch the opening closed.  I find that ironing the little opening helps in keeping the hand-stitched part even (and easier to hide).  This part is explained much better in that tutorial, so please hop over there to check it out.

Holes?  What holes?

Just a fun little variation on the eternity scarf!  It's like a hug for your neck.

(If you want a reminder of what my other infinity scarves looked like, you can click here or here.)