Molly's Sketchbook: Luxury Liberty Scarves

These Liberty of London, Tana Lawn scarves were inspired by a beautiful scarf Purl Soho's manager Nikki made for her mother. As you probably already know our love for Liberty is boundless! One of the most common things we hear from customers when they feel it is, "Is this silk?". They simply can't believe it's 100% cotton (but it is!) It has such a smooth feel and beautiful drape. It also comes in the most inspiring and incredible prints and I thought a large square scarf would be just the thing to show it off.  (By the way, if you love it as much as we do you'll be very pleased to learn that we were recently able to lower our price on this gorgeous fabric a bit since we are now getting it directly from Liberty in London!)

I chose two complimentary prints for each scarf and finished them with a simple double fold binding. It didn't take very long and the results are spectacular! I can't wait to pull one out of my bag next time I feel a chill. --Molly

Materials and Cutting

To make one 36-inch square scarf you will need:

• 1 yard of Liberty of London Tana Lawn for the scarf panel. I used Blue Sydenham Palace for the example above and Grey Orange Droxford for the second scarf.
• 1/4-yard of Liberty of London Tana Lawn in a complimentary print for the binding. I used Hot Pink Wiltshire in the example above and Multi Flowers 0025a for the second scarf.
• 100% cotton thread to match your fabrics, I used color 1140
• Hand Quilting Thread to match your fabrics, I used color 0829

Cut the scarf panel fabric into a 36-inch square.

Cut three 2-inch strips from selvage to selvage from the binding fabric and then cut off the selvages. You will have three 2-inch by (roughly) 52-inch strips.

Sewing the Binding Strips

Pin one binding strip to another, right sides together at a 90-degree angle as shown above so there is a square shape where they overlap. Draw a diagonal line from the top left corner of this square to the bottom right corner and sew the strips together along this marked line. Back stitch at the beginning and end of the seam.

Trim this seam to a 1/4-inch by cutting off the corner of the right angle as shown above.

Pull the right angle apart and your binding should lay flat. Press the seam allowances to one side and press the binding strip flat.

Repeat these steps to attach the third binding strip.

Once all three binding strips are sewn together and pressed flat press the resulting long strip in half length-wise with it's right side facing out.

Attaching the Binding

Place the scarf panel with its right side facing up and starting at the middle of one of its sides pin the raw edges of the folded binding strip to the scarf panel edge as shown above. Both raw edges will be pinned to the scarf panel's raw edge and the fold of the binding strip will face toward the center of the scarf. Leave a 3-inch tail at the beginning of the binding strip.

When you get to a corner fold the binding strip away from the scarf panel at a 90-degree. This creates a little triangle shape as shown above.

Then double back, leaving the little triangle of excess formed by the previous step, and continue pinning the raw edges together along the next side.

The picture above shows the "triangle of excess" that will help to form your mitered corner later.

Pin the binding around the entire scarf panel in this manner until you get back to the first side. Stop pinning 3-inches before you started leaving a 3-inch unpinned gap. Do not cut the binding strip.  Instead leave a tail at the end as shown above.

Sew the binding on to the scarf panel with a 1/4-inch seam allowance starting and stopping your seams 1/4-inch from each corner. Do not sew into your corner triangle of excess. Back stitch at the beginning and end of each seam. Leave the 3-inch gap unsewn.

Once you've sewn all of the pinned binding, lay the tails down along the gap's edge and mark where they meet in the middle of the gap.

Pin them together close to this marking, pulling them away from the scarf panel as shown above. Be careful not to twist them.

Sew the tails together along the marked line and then trim the seam allowance to 1/4-inch. Press the seam allowance to one side.

Pin the sewn together binding tape along the raw edge of the gap and sew it down with a 1/4-inch seam allowance back stitching at the beginning and end of this seam.

Finishing the Binding

Flip the scarf over so the wrong side of the scarf panel is facing up.

Press the edge seams out towards the binding tape on all four sides of the scarf.

Fold the binding tape around to the wrong side and pin it so that it just covers the seam. Don't pin around every side all at once but rather just pin a few inches in front of you as you work. Eventually you might not need the pins at all but rather you could just finger press as you go.

To stitch on the binding use a slip stitch:

Take a tiny horizontal stitch from the scarf panel fabric, just below the folded over binding.

Then, entering the binding just above your first stitch, slip your needle though the fold of the binding, thus hiding the thread, and come out 1/4-inch to the left.

Then take another tiny stitch from the scarf panel directly below where your needle came out.

And then, again, stick your needle into the fold of the binding just above the stitch and slip your needle through the binding 1/4-inch to the left.

There will be an almost invisible row of little stitches on the front of the scarf, just along side of the binding.

Sew the binding down in this manner along all the sides.

When you get to a corner, fold the triangle of excess into a pleasing mitered shape (it should do this almost automatically) and tack the corner down with a few small stitches.

The miter on the right side of the corner should fall into place once you've done this.

Once you're done sewing down the binding your scarf will be finished!