Monday, February 20, 2012

Simple Fleece Shrug

When I saw this tutorial, from Amber Perry Patterns, I was intrigued by how easy the idea of a simple shrug would be.  I often give my girls a long sleeve undershirt to wear under a short sleeve shirt when it's cold outside, and this looked like another alternative.  So I gave it a try.


Basically you take a rectangle of fleece about the length of your child's arm span and wide enough to go around their arms and sew both sides closed until the arm pits.  Simple and quick.  Well, maybe not so quick for me.
Here's what I learned:

Measuring children is terribly difficult.

The original tutorial says to measure from middle of back to wrist, but I discovered that when Xena bends her arms in, there's more distance from her back middle than when she holds her arms out straight.  The sleeves were a little short for this reason.  Next time, I'll take the longer measurement.




There was also the issue of how close to the armpits to sew the shrug.  The tutorial suggested two inches from the arm pits, but that wasn't long enough for one year old Xena.  I had to sew it, and try it on, and sew it again and try it on until I got the right length.

Next time I'm going to try it with the stretch of the fabric going lengthwise instead of widthwise, to see if that would make it easier to put on.


Both Xena and I love the little head cloth I made with it.  I was going to tie it shut into a hat, but when I tried it on her to see if it fit, I loved the Aunt Jemima look, so I left it the way it was.  It was so cold those next few days, that Xena loved the extra warmth.

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