This months challenge was to create something with a 'dots' theme and it was the perfect opportunity for me to make a jersey scarf, which I have wanted to do for a while. 

I ordered 2.4m of 64" wide cream jersey and a pot of Dylon Fabric Paint in Gold from Minerva Crafts. I wanted to make a long scarf so it could be worn in lots of ways, wrapped round a couple of times in winter and as a shawl for those cool summer nights.


I started by cutting the jersey in half lengthwise (which means I also get to make another one!) and ransacked the house for things to use for printing. I have seen a couple of tutorials that use corks so I grabbed one of those, I had a spare foam mini roller refill (the kind for painting walls) and then some random toys that had fun shapes...


I cut a test strip from the extra fabric and had a play:


This is well worth doing if you plan to make your own. Some shapes looked good the first time but subsequent stamps not so great. I didn't like the cork at all (on the right) and the wooden shapes looked cool but not neat enough. The plastic bobbin made such a great shape (reminds me of the steam punk pattern) but wasn't what I wanted for this scarf. I loved the pizza shape made by the watermelon and that led me to cut the end of the foam roller, a really simple way to make your own shape!


You have to cut away the foam quite far down so that it doesn't ruin the shape when you press down. A did a few tests and made a triangle shape. I practised dipping it in the paint and printing a couple of times. Turned out I preferred to dip it in the paint every time I stamped so that I got a really good amount of paint each time. I also pressed down lightly and sort of rolled the stamp around so it created a nice shape. If it didn't work out I just went over it!


So I was happy with the triangles but the theme is 'dots'!! I didn't want to use the cork and everything else seemed too big... then I had a revelation and grabbed one of my kids pencils, the rubber on top was perfect!


Here's my printing station (aka dining table), the laminated table cloth was perfect and I didn't use anything else underneath (you could use newspaper if you want to protect your floor, table etc). You can also tell I didn't wash or iron the fabric before starting, I'm reckless like that.


It's hard to see in the photos but the gold Dylon fabric paint has a beautiful shine to it in the light. Once the paint was dry (after about 4 hours) I used a cloth over it and set the design with a hot dry iron. It did feel a bit stiff but a quick cool wash softened it up and I threw it in the tumble dryer (not sure if you are supposed to but it was fine!). It really is the most snuggly scarf and I'm thrilled with the design. The dots make it a bit retro and the triangles look 80s but the gold keeps it modern. 


I adore jersey. It's so easy to wear and the fact it just rolls up at the edges so you don't have to sew it means it's super easy to make your own scarf! Minerva Crafts stock great wearable colours of this jersey and you can order in quantities of .10m (minimum .5m), perfect to get the right length of scarf for you.

Here's some bad selfies of me tying it in different ways:

I love my new scarf!! And this is the first tick off my FAL list :)

If you have made anything with dots or dot themed in the past month come and link up your finishes at le challenge for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop


Le Challenge