Neck Pillow Cover Sewlution and Infinity and Beyond Scarf Attempt 1

Brr...Apparently we're in for quite a cold spell.  Monday is supposed to reach -4F... in Louisville, KY, that is pretty unusual... So... that explains why as I was doing errands that the grocery store was packed as if it was the super bowl... and explains the lines at the gas station... Everybody was stocking up!  I had to buy groceries anyway so I did make some effort by buying more non perishables such as granola bars.  It's only supposed to be super cold for late Sunday and all of Monday so I'm hoping nothing really goes wrong.  Everybody at the complex received a note recently telling us to take precautions to ensure that our pipes don't freeze and burst. I'm just hoping the cold doesn't do major damage because this place simply isn't used to these kind of conditions.  I mean, I'm convinced the walls are not insulated well because last year Josh and I weathered the windows and it didn't do any good.  It was still really cold by the walls.  On the bright side, I have sufficient food for a week and Josh left one of his super warm sleeping bags here so at least I won't freeze if the electricity goes out.  It will be okay regardless!

Anyway, I digress...

So remember that problem from the previous post about the neck pillow? Well, after a few ideas thrown around I decided this would be the most straight forward and quick.  I played around with the idea of ruched via elastic patch that could stretch back and forth... but that just seemed too tedious and I am not really in the mood for anything particularly challenging today.

The top photo is where I cut the seams where it was already torn to expand the hole.  The bottom is where I essentially just added a patch in the shape of the hole you see in the top photo.  I'm really hoping this doesn't tear again.  If it does, I'll go ahead with that ruched idea probably but starting from scratch.  Sometimes that's just the best thing to do, as opposed to patching up problems.

Proposed plan, drafted from my iPhone (ha ha...)

First, pretend that one of the sides of the ROUNDED (pretend it's rounded...)rectangles is actually made up of two skinny rounded rectangles that have an embedded zipper holding them together, just like the original tutorial used from that previous post. The wrong sides of fabric face out and the right sides are touching each other.

1. Leaving the zipper mostly unzipped... (So you can turn it right side out) sew around the sides

2. Take elastic and sew ruching on both of the long sides in the middle along the edge, this is where they would forcibly curve in and stretch out by the pilllow and whatever the pillow is placed around (like your neck...). Probably good to make sure that the elastic used for ruching isn't toooo strong or else it won't bend with the pillow very well... And don't stretch elastic too far out for super tight ruching for the same reason.

3. Turn right side out and sew up the side that was left open.

(Note, have yet to test this out, but this is one of the ideas I was playing around with in my head)

An example of how to do this sort of elastic ruching from craftsy.http://bit.ly/1i94psF

Then I decided to make an infinity scarf.  Not just any infinity scarf... but infinity and beyond (tutorial I found, here).  I really like the tutorial because it is very simple and the photos are great.

These are not the original buttons I intended for this project, but I had accidentally purchased other buttons that were not raised, which would have made it difficult to button the two sides of the scarf together. The ones I ended up using were originally intended for the future office chair slip cover. We'll see what happens with that sometime in the future I guess.

The finished product.

Take 1.

Take 2.

Okay, that's all for today.  Time for some hot chocolate! Bring on the blistering cold, I gots my wool blankets and beverages!

Stay warm, everybody!