Oh So Pinteresting Wednesday - Quote Scarf

Almost through February now - Week 8 already!  This year is flying right along!

This week is a lovely project that I fell in love with soon after I first stumbled onto Pinterest.  The original DIY instructions are from Stamp48, with the original inspiration piece being a scarf from We Are Owls' Fall/Winter 2010 collection.  Like Lauren over at Stamp48, designer cashmere scarves are a little (read: solidly) over my budget, no matter now gorgeous they are.  So, I followed her instructions on how to create a similar scarf of my own.  What follows, as always, are the original instructions, with any notes, advice, alterations, etc. that I used in making my own version of the piece.

What do you need:

• a scarf, pashmina, length of fabric, etc. that you want to decorate.  I used a pashmina I found on sale, a nice and inexpensive woven wool blend.
• a fabric paint pen.  I used Fabric Mate, a chisel-tip paint pen, which was perfect, as I could make my writing angled and 'swoopy' and pretty :)
• a quote you like
• optional - painter's blue tape, or similar removable masking tape
• also optional, but highly recommended - something to cover your workspace (I used my knitting blocking boards)
  
  

  

What do you do:

1.     Protect your workspace, particularly if your scarf is thin or your brand of paint pen tends to bleed.  I have interlocking blocking boards for my knitting, so I laid out three of them as one long rectangle, and it was the perfect size for my pashmina.

2.     Lay out your scarf.  I left mine wrinkled, as I liked the effect that the texture gave to the lettering.   

3.     I anchored my scarf to the craft mat I was using (i.e. my blocking boards) with some blue painters tape.  I didn't pull the scarf taut over the boards (like I said, I liked the texture), but the anchoring of tape did help cut down a LOT on how much the scarf slid around as I wrote.

4.     Write out your quote on the scarf.  Yes it really is this simple. 

5.     Follow the instructions for your particular paint pen on how to set the ink.  For the brand I used, all you had to do was let it dry for 24 hours.

6.     Shoo away helpful kitties to take a picture of the finished project.  I swear, there's a crafter deep down in that cat - so many of my craft projects have him investigating/sitting atop my work!

Things to consider:

• I practiced my quote in a font I liked on paper first, to get the spacing as I liked it.  Nothing fancy, just a regular lined notepad worked fine, but it gave me an idea of how big to make my letters. 
• Lauren over at Stamp48 also suggested practicing on a similar fabric, to get used to how the pen writes on your particular material.  I skipped this step, as I had no similar fabric to practice on.  However, I was using a long quote and had practiced my lettering on paper beforehand, so I just wrote slowly at first to get used to the pen.  I also was using a fabric pen more like a marker than a paint pen, so didn't have to worry as much about ink bleeding or how hard to squeeze the pen to control ink flow.  A little thing I hadn't considered when shopping for a paint pen, but it turned out to be a nice little bonus.

• I did estimate how many lines I would use to write out my quote, and used a tape measure to roughly mark approximate spacing for the start of each line of text.  Just plain sidewalk chalk worked perfectly.  An extra optional supply, I guess, depending on how you want your quote spaced.  I wanted it relatively evenly spaced, but not too precisely so - the inconsistencies give it a nice handwritten feel.
• I let my ink dry a little while the scarf was laid out, and then went back over some of the letters.  Some just needed some extra emphasis (like the starts of the lines of text), some letters were just kinda light to begin with.  Means that my scarf took a little to dry, but I liked the ultimate effect.  Just another option to play around with to give your scarf a personal touch.  
• Thinking of ink drying... Don't wear long sleeves, particularly if you're also a lefty.  It's the chalkboard effect all over again (Am I dating myself now?  Do many schools even still use chalkboards?)  At any rate, I had dark purpley-blue ink all down my fore-arms when I was done.  Lovely smudges that looked like bruises until I washed my hands... and my arms all the way to my elbows!  I hadn't smudged the writing, as I wasn't writing that quickly, but I did end up with ink all over.  In short, be prepared; you are working with ink after all.  Don't wear anything you wouldn't want smudges on.

What quote did I use?  One of my favorites from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

I'm a worrier, a fretter, an over-thinker.  As my life becomes more hectic with more Army moves in the future, and grad school rapidly approaching, I wanted something to remind myself to let go of what I can no longer change and focus on doing my best with what's ahead.  I'm fond of accessories that have hidden meanings like that - charms on a necklace or bracelet, quotes on a scarf, that sort of thing.  No one else might see them, but I know they are there, and it is a nice reminder for me.  Like I said, I'm a stress puppy, so every little thing to help keep me sane :)  And if it's a pretty scarf to drape around my neck, even better!