To Infinity and Beyond

     So many blogs recently have featured infinity scarfs.  There are knitted ones, ones made out of polar fleece, single loop ones, really wide ones - an almost infinite variety.  I ended up with a heavy knitted one at our work Yankee Swap and have been thinking a lighter less bulky one would be nice.  Yesterday at Joann's I spotted some lace remnants and a sort of low pile furry white knit and thought why not.  They were 70% off so for a few dollars and a couple of hours I now have two infinity scarfs.
     I used this tutorial from Sweet Verbena http://sweet-verbena.blogspot.com/2011/10/single-loop-lace-infinity-scarf.html as guidance.  Her scarf was only a single loop though and I knew I wanted mine longer.  I also didn't want it to be quite as wide.  So for length I just used the full width of the knit fabric - about 60 inches.  For width I made it 10 inches wide.  For everything else, I followed her directions and ended up with this.

The red lace is fairly open so a light of the white backing shows through but you can adjust the scarf to display either more or less of the red.
  The width and length are exactly what I was hoping.
  It does look a little Christmas y.  I wish had made it last month - it would be
a perfect accessory for the black sweater dress I wore to a holiday party.

However, I noticed that with the open work lace you could really see the messy inner seams if you looked closely.
  I started the Crafty Diane Rupp online sewing course a couple of weeks ago and learned how to make french seams.  This made me wonder if I could make a scarf with French Seams.
   My second piece of lace was not as long so I had to piece it together to get a 60 inch piece, but other than that I kept all the measurements the same.  Instead of doing the first seams right sides together I matched them up wrong sides together (or how the completed scarf would look).  I then sewed a quarter inch seam down both long sides in a medium zig zag stitch as the base fabric is knit.  Then I turned the scarf inside out and carefully sewed a second seam a little wider than a 1/4 inch making sure to roll the previous seam to the outside edge.

That way all the messiness was on the inside of the closed seam.  In retrospect it would have looked even better if I had used white thread in my bobbin but I was more concerned with matching the green lace.  I then turned the whole thing right side out again and sewed the short ends of the green lace together matching right side to right side.  Then you sort of turn it inside out again.  It doesn't need to be turned all the way - just enough so you can sew all but the last few inches of the right sides of the knit material together.  Then pull everything back through the gap, slip stitch the opening and voila! A very neat infinity scarf.

Because of the heavier lace this one has a more solid appearance.  I'm really pleased with both and wish I had tried this before the holidays.  These will make great gifts and I'm already mentally going through different fabric and color combinations
Despite the french seams the second scarf is the same width as the first because I used a narrower seam allowance.
A definite instant gratification project!