Part IV

Once done with zigzagging both long twisty ruffles, fine the center of each piece and mark it with a pin.

Line up the two pin markings and pin the two pieces together.

Sew the two pieces together so the don't shift around when you wear your new scarf.

I didn't want to use myself for a model, so this is Addie's monkey, his name is Number One (seriously, I didn't make that up) modeling the new scarf. This is so easy, a beginning sewer can do it, and it's a fun way to use up your old tshirts. It took less than an hour, start to finish, including taking the pictures.

Now send me pictures of the scarf you make!

Part III

So now if you hold up one end of the "C," you have a long, twisty ruffle. You can now take out the pins so you have 6 ruffles.

Take two ruffles and pin them together at the ends. Right and wrong sides don't matter since most tshirts don't have right and wrong sides. It doesn't matter if you pin the C's going the same way or opposite. It's just a long, twisty, very forgiving ruffle so don't sweat the small stuff.

If you don't want to sew this, you can use some fabric glue and glue 3 of the C pieces together. Then layer the 2 long twisty ruffles around your neck and tie however you want. That's the Pinterst version. But if you can sew, by all means, continue:

You will sew 3 ruffles together, so you end up with 2 really long twisty ruffles. I sew them together at a 1/4" seam allowance and then I trim that down by half. My OCD requires that I zigzag the seam, but you may do as your level OCD dictates.

Now for the fun part. Set your machine to a zigzag stitch and zigzag over the edge (meaning the needle runs off the fabric - I let my fabric run through at the pressure foot slit) and stretch the fabric as it feeds through. You don't need to jerk it, or use muscle to stretch it, or anything like that. Just a little resistance on the stretch of the fabric will do just fine.

That little bit of resistance causes the knit fabric to curl up so nicely!

So here are my 2 long twisty ruffles. The one on the right has been zigzagged. The one on the left has not. You can see what a difference the zigzagging makes!

Part II

Now is a good time to put some pins in (between the large and small circles) to keep the fabric from shifting when you cut it out.

So go ahead and cut out the large circles.

Now it's time to cut out the small circles. These aren't going to remain "donuts," so you can make a cut from the outside edge (large circle) to the inside circle. It doesn't matter where.

When you get to the small circle line, cut around that circle so you have your donut shape, or "C" shape since it now has a cut in it.

Scarf - Sewing optional, but strongly suggested (Part I)

There is really nothing all that unique or special about me, so I don't generally share my little tricks that I learn because I have an irrational fear that that if everyone knows my secret tricks that I will be even less unique and special. But at the behest of my sister Mie, due to my really bad written instructions, I give you a Pinterest scarf with my own little flair.

So what you need is a tshirt UNPRINTED (mine is one that Jack has outgrown, size youth XL), something round to use for a pattern (I used an embroidery hoop, about 10" in diameter), a fabric marking pen or chalk, scissors, and something to measure with (ruler, tape measure).


So I can get 3 of my embroidery hoops out of the shirt. I have traced around the hoop with my fabric marking pen. Sorry it doesn't show up well, I should have used a white shirt for this. :)

Then you will measure from the circle you just drew 3" inside, making a smaller circle. There is nothing magical about the 3", that's just the width I chose for the scarf. You can make it fatter or thinner, depending on your preference. So now you have the large circle (the one you drew first) and a smaller circle inside of that.

Repeat for all your circles, so you have donut shapes on all. This will now make 6 circles since there are two layers of fabric (the front of the shirt and the back)

Christmas

I made cupcakes. There is a reason I make cupcakes: you can't really screw them up too much. For our Christmas Eve dinner, I got this brilliant idea that I could make a layer cake. Guess what? I can't.

My beautiful Red Velvet Christmas layer cake collapsed on me (stupid round top!) I had enough time (and surprisingly, enough red food coloring) to make a second Red Velvet cake, although just a boring old rectangle one in my boring old rectangle pan. And so I will stick with cupcakes.

My sister Mie made sock monkeys for my kids. They could not be more perfectly suited to my kids! Taylor's is all green and purple and has a music player and headphones. Jacks is Mario, perfectly fashioned right down to the hat and moustache. Addie's is all girly and sparkly. I think they were the favorite gifts on Christmas.

Taylor also got dishes for her cedar chest, clothes and an iTunes card.

Jack got a Nerf game for the Wii, a remote control helicopter and a suit.

Addie got a new doll stroller, clothes, and other small stuff.

Lane got tired of me complaining that I don't have any decent serving dishes and totally surprised me with some nice ones from Crate & Barrel and some new exercise clothes (which is a good thing since old tshirts around my house are an endangered species!)

Things that have been keeping me busy . . .

I almost made it through Christmas without having a Full Blown Christmas meltdown, but didn't quite make it (see Red Velvet Cake above). I took on my usual Too Many projects, but managed to get them all done without totally freaking out. So here are a few of the things I made:

This skirt is for Addie. I had plenty of fabric left from my ruffle skirt experiment, so I whipped this up. Other than the fact that it totally needs to be ironed, it turned out really cute, and super floofly which is just what Addie loves. I also made her another skirt from some of her old jeans and another fabric remnant and a belted oversized shirt, from yet another remnant. My pack-rat tendencies finally pay off!!

This I made for my neice Kassie. I saw it on Pinterest and loved it. I actually had to break down and pay for a pattern, but it wasn't much.

Double Chocolate cupcakes with mint buttercream frosting, topped with crushed candy canes. I never got one for myself. I hope they were good.

Another Pinterest find. Excuse the photo, I was taking it myself in my bathroom mirror. I cut up one of my old red tshirts to get this, and it's actually pretty cool. I cut up another old red tshirt for another scarf, but haven't yet photographed it. I like both of them so well, that I have gifted them to some other people, whether they want them or not. Old tshirts are no longer safe at my house - anything that looks old and ratty or too small becomes mine to do with as I choose. If you have too many old tshirts at your house, I will gladly take them off your hands!

Preference

Taylor finally got to go to a date-dance at the high school. That whole Waiting-til-She-Was-16 thing nearly killed her. Stupid summer birthday. She invited a boy to Girl's Preference and she said they had a really great time.

We found her what I consider to be The Perfect Dress at Nordstrom for a reasonable price. It fit her just right and was long enough in the skirt, high enough in the neckline, and had sleeves. That is a pretty tough combination to find these days.